Juan Wauters’ ‘MVD LUV’ is more than just an album—it’s a homecoming. For the first time in his career, Wauters has recorded a full-length project in his birthplace of Montevideo, Uruguay, embracing the city’s rich musical traditions while continuing to push the boundaries of his distinctive songwriting.A love letter to both his roots and his present, ‘MVD LUV’ brings Uruguayansounds to the global stage, incorporating candombe and murga rhythms into Wauters’ signature fusion of folk, pop, and experimentation. Having spent much of his career in the United States, Wauters has long carried the dual identity of immigrant and native son. With ‘MVD LUV’, he set out to bridge those worlds, capturing the essence of Montevideo’s streets, homes, and communal spirit. The album was recorded in various locations across the city, from his own studio to sidewalks, rooftops, and the homes of featured musicians. This approach lends the project a raw authenticity, making Montevideo itself feel like an active presence in the music. Thematically, MVD LUV explores identity, nostalgia, and human connection. Tracks like “Manejando por Pando” and “Siempre Vuelven” reflect on returning home and the passage of time, while “If It’s Not Luv” and “DimeAmiga” delve into love, companionship, and personal reflection. “Ando conMiedo” captures urban anxieties, juxtaposing introspection with the vibrant rhythms of the city. Throughout, Wauters crafts a deeply personal yet universal meditation on belonging. With ‘MVD LUV’, Juan Wauters presents a vibrant, heartfelt exploration of place and identity, creating an album that feels both deeply rooted and universally resonant. This is a record that doesn’t just introduce listeners to Montevideo—it invites them to feel at home within it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Amor Montevideo
2. If It’s Not Luv
3. Manejando Por Pando
4. Acting Like I Don’t Know
5. Canción Mamá
6. Dime Amiga
7. La Lucía
8. Mutuación
9. Niño
10. Get A Habit
11. Aeropuerto
12. Lonely By Myself
13. Ando Con Miedo
14. Siempre Vuelven

On her first album of alt-pop anthems - 2022’s gorgeous, folk-infused 'When I’m Alone' - girlpuppy (neé Becca Harvey) often felt like she was working in the shadow of her collaborators. Made on the other side of a relationship where she often felt marginalized, 'Sweetness' felt like the right project for the 25-year-old Atlanta-based singer-songwriter to rethink her creative approach and work solely from her own lyrical and melodic ideas. The result of this process was a darker, more texturally expansive record than its predecessor, full of heart-rending songs about pushing back against self-blame and doubt. From its heavy-duty sonics to its naturally flowing melodies to its emotionally generous lyrics, every element of Sweetness exudes confidence, capturing Harvey relishing raw creativity and trusting her inclinations. The record takes place within that moment all artists wait for: when their “voice” becomes so clear, they realize they can just open their mouth and start speaking in it.

Freed from the nagging insecurity that she couldn’t be a songwriter without playing an instrument - she cites The National’s Matt Berninger as an inspiration - Harvey began 'Sweetness' by recording full-length acapella voice memos. To find a backdrop for the vocals, Harvey delved into her diverse, lifelong set of musical reference points, from the country and Top 40 pop she grew up on in small-town Georgia to the later favorites that expanded her idea of what songwriting could achieve: Elliott Smith, Lana Del Rey, Yo La Tengo, and more. With the help of Asheville-based producer/co-writer Alex Farrar and additional co-writers Tom Sinclair and Holden Fincher, Harvey pinpointed a sweet spot between shoegaze, dream-pop, and pop-rock anthems from the turn of the millennium.

Mixing the playful with the devastating, Harvey coasts on cathartic waves of emotion and monster hooks throughout Sweetness—a momentum which is guaranteed to push her to the front of the ranks of today’s most fearlessrising indie-pop singer-songwriters. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A bracing mix of late 90's grunge, fizzing fuzzes and feedback with dusty shoegaze saturation and thumping, punky percussion all topped with Harvey's impeccably driven, wonderfully performed vocals. Perfectly written melodic masterpieces, and an instrumental aesthetic that hits just right.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro
2. I Just Do!
3. Champ
4. In My Eyes
5. Windows
6. Since April
7. Beaches
8. I Was Her Too
9. For You Two
10. I Think I Did 

"Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987 is the first volume of Captured Tracks’ new venture into compilations – Excavations. Dedicated to compiling forgotten music from the 1970s – 1990s that has a connection to Captured Tracks’ sound and aesthetic, this series will bridge the past to our current roster and showcase the kinds of sounds that inspire us. As an American label, we’ve often wondered why British, Aussie, and Kiwi indie rock from the ‘80s has had the most infuence on modern acts and the collector’s market. Outside of bands like R.E.M., the Rain Parade, the Dream Syndicate, and a few others, most of these bands received little attention from national or international press outlets and markets. The acts on this compilation have a true DiY spirit that lead many of these bands to self-record and self-release within tiny local scenes in small cities and college towns across America.

Strum & Thrum aims to shed light on this forgotten era of jangly, melodic rock music that emerged from the ashes of post punk and helped kick start the indie rock boom of the early ‘90s that continues to this day. Indeed, many artists featured on Strum & Thrum went on to be part of this boom – Archer Prewitt from the Sea & Cake, Jon Ginoli from Pansy Division, Ric Menck from Velvet Crush, Brent Rademaker from Beachwood Sparks, Barbara Manning, and more went on to be in well known bands in the ‘90s. Spread across two LPs, Strum & Thrum includes an 80+ page booklet with an extensive oral history of the ‘80s indie scene, an introduction by Captured Tracks label head Mike Sniper, and tons of archival images and ephemera. Long live the jangle underground!"

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. The Reverbs - Trusted Woods
2. Start - Where I Want To Be
3. Cyclones - I’m In Heaven
4. Windbreakers - All That Stuff
5. Primitons - All My Friends
6. Bangtails - Patron Of The Arts
7. The Love In - Late As Usual
8. Sex Clark Five - She Collides With Me
9. Three Hits - 5 O’Clock
10. Crippled Pilgrims - Black And White (Alternate)
11. Vandykes - Breakin My Heart
12. Salem 66 - Seven Steps Down
13. The Outnumbered - I Feel So Sorry Now
14. The Darrows - Is It You

Disc 2:
15. Riff Doctors - Say Goodbye
16. The Ferrets - She Was Unkind
17. 28th Day - Pages Turn (Alternate)
18. Great Plains - When Do You Say Hello?
19. Downy Mildew - Purple Parlor
20. The Strand - You And Me
21. The White Sisters - Misery, Me, & You
22. Absolute Grey - Remorse
23. One Plus Two - Promise
24. The Springfields - Sunflower
25. Holiday - Change
26. Pop Art - The Meeting
27. The Reactions - Tomorrow’s Time Today
28. A New Personality - Essential Things

In the age of streaming platforms and social media, stimulation is easy to come by. Real pleasure, however—the kind that feeds our soul rather than draining it—is in shockingly short supply. The second LP by THUS LOVE is full of that kind of nourishing euphoria. It swoons, shakes, and swaggers with a combination of grit and sensuality that’s been hard to locate in music lately. It’s called, fittingly, 'All Pleasure'.

The album came out of a period of dizzying growth and transformation for the group. When they began work on it, vocalist/guitarist Echo Mars and drummer Lu Racine were still reeling from the runaway success of their 2022 debut Memorial—a set of lush, elegant post-punk that brought praise from The FADER, the NME, and the Guardian—along with processing the departure of the founding bassist.

With 'All Pleasure', the band re-formed with new bassist Ally Juleen and guitarist/keyboardist Shane Blank. The group convened in a barn in the woods that Mars had transformed into a recording studio, and kept one rule at the forefront: “If it’s not joyful, don’t do it.” What emerged from that mission is a stunningly gorgeous album, full of big, arcing melodies and a range of kinky stylistic twists that will surprise listeners who know the group just for Memorial’s chorus-drenched 80sstyle psychedelia. 'Birthday Song' gives grungy glam rock with a transcendent hook that underlines Echo’s lyrical tribute to communal joy. 'Get Stable' transmutes existential panic into sharp-angled punk pop.

The anthemic title track is something like the album’s mission statement, paying tribute to the power of joyful creation. Mixed by Matthew Hall and Rich Costey and mastered by Bob Weston, 'All Pleasure' was recorded as live as possible, capturing the sheer infectious ecstasy that comes from sharing space together and making a divine racket. Put on 'All Pleasure', tap into the energy that THUS LOVE is putting out, and you just might find an escape.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Yep, BANG into this. An album made by a bunch of supremely talented musicians about being happy, filled with tons of huge riffs and incandescent hooks. Supremely uplifting, poppy stoner punk business. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

1. On The Floor
2. Birthday Song
3. Get Stable
4. All Pleasure
5. Face To Face
6. Lost In Translation
7. Show Me Patience
8. House On A Hill
9. Bread For Blood
10. Losing A Friend

Saâda Bonaire. The fantastic disco/world music project from Bremen, Germany which never was meant to be. Formed by Bremen DJ Ralf Behrendt in 1982, Saâda Bonaire was a unique concept band centred around two sultry female vocalists (Stefanie Lange and Claudia Hossfeld) and dozens of local musicians culled from the local immigration center. Originally signed to EMI in 1982, their first and only single, “You Could Be More As You Are” was produced by legendary Matumbi, Slits and Pop Group producer Dennis Bovell in Kraftwerk’s studio in Cologne. The fusion of husky female vocals, Eastern instruments, dub and African music aesthetics, drum computers and synthesizers remains unique to this day. EMI cancelled the project upon its release. Saâda Bonaire compiles two songs from the original EMI single plus 11 previously unreleased songs recorded between 1982 and 1985. Also included are never before-published photos and in-depth interviews with band members and a full gatefold cover for those dedicated vinyl buyers. These lost recordings from the early 80s still sound fresh on today’s dance floor.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: For anyone who, like Pasta Paul, has been furiously checking Discogs for an affordable copy in the UK over the last few years, there is good news! Captured Tracks are finally blessing us with another reissue of what has become a bit of a cult classic. And deservedly so! Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Saâda Bonaire.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Could Be More As You Are
2. Invitation
3. Little Sister
4. More Women
5. I Am So Curious
6. Second Face
7. Heart Over Head
8. Shut The Door
9. The Facts
10. Give Me A Call
11. Wake Up City
12. Joanna
13. Your Touch

Salad Days is the follow-up to Mac DeMarco’s lauded 2012 album 2, which saw the Edmonton local propelled into the limelight. Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule, Salad Days gives the listener a very personal insight into what it’s all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format.

In celebration of the 10 year anniversary of DeMarco’s career-defining album, this limited edition 2xLP compiles both the original Salad Days and Salad Days Demos into a unique ‘ Chamber Of Reflection’ package complete with full colour poster, 12-page booklet with DeMarco’s Salad Days Tour dates, original rider, previously unpublished photos, and new liners written by Mac.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1:
1. Salad Days
2. Blue Boy
3. Brother
4. Let Her Go
5. Goodbye Weekend
6. Let My Baby Stay
7. Passing Out Pieces
8. Treat Her Better
9. Chamber Of Reflection
10. Go Easy
11. Jonny’s Odyssey

Disc 2:
1. Goodbye Weekend
2. Salad Days
3. Ken The Wolf Boy
4. Passing Out Pieces Of Me
5. Organ Ronald Donkey Water
6. Let My Baby Stay
7. Pepperoni Playboy
8. Brother
9. Potato Boy
10. Go Easy
11. Horse Hot Wee Wee Water
12. Blue Boy
13. Sloppy Lau Lau
14. Avocado Andrew

The year 2020 sure wasn’t the most ideal time to form a band, especially for a group of musicians who never played together before. But for New York rock quintet GIFT, this strangest of periods was the auspicious backdrop for a bold new sound – a dizzying blend of early shoegaze, classic ‘90s alternative rock and even modern pop.

Indeed, that GIFT emerged somewhat fully formed on their 2022 debut album 'Momentary Presence' was a testament to the creative possibilities laying deep within. Now, 'Illuminator', their debut album for revered New York independent label Captured Tracks, is the long-awaited payoff of GIFT’s ever-growing musical and human chemistry. And while nods are apparent to label forerunners such as Beach Fossils, DIIV and Wild Nothing, GIFT are shepherding those elements into wondrous new vessels for the present moment–sleek, often danceable and frequently mesmerizing.

GIFT – vocalist/guitarist TJ Freda, multi-instrumentalists Jessica Gurewitz and Justin Hrabovsky, drummer Gabe Camarano and bassist Kallan Campbell are firmly enmeshed in the New York scene as talent buyers, photographers, DJs, audio engineers, art directors and, in the case of Campbell, an owner of the beloved Brooklyn DIY venue Alphaville.

GIFT introduced Illuminator with 'Wish Me Away', their first new song in the 18 months since the debut. With its earworm guitar lines, propulsive rhythms, riveting vocals and mind-expanding aural flourishes, 'Wish Me Away' is the perfect sonic springboard from Momentary Presence to where GIFT are going next. It’s also a potent reminder that you can still preserve that twinkle in your eye even when you feel like everything’s slipping away.

On songs such as 'Light Runner', 'Going In Circles' and 'Destination Illumination', Freda demonstrates a newfound confidence and versatility, embracing pop music as a vehicle. The relentless, often painful dance of love has never sounded as exhilarating as on 'Going in Circles', while the strident tone poem 'Water in My Lungs' conjures the unreal feeling of watching a romantic partner both figuratively and literally fade from view. “This album has a lot of themes of going fast, time passing and things changing,” Freda says.

Throughout, Freda and company thankfully do much of the hard work for us: falling in love, heartbreak. Watching events and moments go by like cars on the highway. People you once knew coming in and out. Grieving the loss of different phases. Watching everything happen simultaneously. For these and many other reasons, 'Illuminator', friends, will be the sou ndtrack to the throughline of your life.

TRACK LISTING

1. Wish Me Away
2. Light Runner
3. To The Stars And Back
4. Going I N Circles
5. It’s All Too Fast
6. Falling Down
7. Destination Illumination
8. Later
9. Glow
10. Water In My Lungs
11. Milestones

Following the release of Everything Harmony, which garnered acclaim from Questlove, Iggy Pop, Anthony Fantano, The Guardian, and countless others, The Lemon Twigs—the New York City rock band fronted by brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario—have once again captured the attention of the music listening public. Set for release less than a year after their last album, A Dream Is All We Know is a joyous affair. As the title suggests, it’s less of a sober look at the darker side of life, and more a hopeful sojourn into the realm of dreams.

Michael’s line in lead single and album opener “My Golden Years” – “In time I hope that I can show all the world the love in my mind” – serves as a statement of intent for the whole collection of songs, as the brothers race against time to create as much quality pop material as possible. On track two, The Lemon Twigs invite listeners into a bubblegum paradise with euphoric harmonies and biting clavinet (“They Don’t Know How To Fall In Place”), followed by an existential space age epic (“A Dream Is All I Know”), and, elsewhere on the album, a baroque pocket-prog tune (“Sweet Vibration”), a two-part nightmare-comedy that doesn’t let up (“Peppermint Roses”), and more.

Equipped with the songwriting chops of a lost era (somewhere between The Brill Building and 10452 Bellagio Road) the new record was carefully arranged and produced entirely analog in the brothers’ Brooklyn recording studio. Most of the tracks were constructed with the two brothers swapping instruments and layering all the parts themselves, but one exception to that rule was “In The Eyes Of The Girl,” which was co-produced by Sean Ono Lennon in his upstate New York studio.

While the album is chock full of progressive pop ideas, it closes appropriately with an ode to early rock and roll on “Rock On (Over and Over),” contextualizing the band as part of a lineage of rock and roll that’s never really stopped. For The Lemon Twigs, it took almost a decade for critics and audiences alike to present them with the major accolades they’ve earned this past year. While their initial records were appreciated for the musical proficiency they displayed, the brothers’ past few records have communicated their ideas with more clarity and emotional resonance. In other words, “It took too long to say ‘rock on.’”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's a great lineage of influence hidden in The Lemon Twigs' sound, but one that is definitely less prominent than their uniquely modern take on the classic. There's a little bit (and a little bit more) of Beach Boys in the brilliant 'How Can I Love Her More?' but the melodic turns and orchestral flourishes are uniquely theirs, and help to make what is without a doubt their strongest LP to date.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Golden Years
2. They Don’t Know How To Fall In Place
3. Church Bells
4. A Dream Is All I Know
5. Sweet Vibration
6. In The Eyes Of The Girl
7. If You And I Are Not Wise
8. How Can I Love Her More
9. Ember Days
10. Peppermint Roses
11. I Should’ve Known Right From The Start
12. Rock On (Over And Over)

Drahla make their long-awaited return with their astounding second record angeltape, offering an intriguing world for audiences to explore while eschewing conventional melodic structures and embracing uncertainty. Their latest material gives an unfiltered insight into the challenging transitional period the band found themselves in following the release of their 2019 critically acclaimed debut, Useless Coordinates. angeltape is an altogether more introspective and abstract examination of the self, an avant garde document of the events that unfolded over the five-year gap between records. Over the last few years, the band have experienced devastating personal losses, while expanding their sound with guitarist Ewan Barr joining vocalist and guitarist Luciel Brown, bassist Rob Riggs and drummer Mike Ainsley. These recent experiences – collective and individual – culminate in a sound that is considerably darker and tonally more complex and conceptual in its essence. Delving into themes of grief and trauma whilst simultaneously celebrating moments of sentimentality and support during difficult times, angeltape shifts between being a challenging, comforting and ultimately rewarding record for both artist and audience.

The addition of Ewan Barr to Drahla’s visceral and vital arrangements signaled a significant shift in the band’s dynamic, ultimately reshaping the way they approach their angular arrangements. Crucially, it allowed Drahla to dismantle previous limitations and carve out new sonic avenues to experiment with form more than ever before. The exhilarating interplay of driving bass riffs and charged drum patterns provide a captivating contrast to Brown’s melodic spoken delivery. The enveloping atmosphere emanating from the quartet is heightened by searing saxophone accompaniments from long-standing collaborator Chris Duffin. There’s an irresistible and unwavering potency surging throughout this masterful second record, one that stays with you long after you first step into Drahla’s enticing world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Under The Glass
2. Default Parody
3. Zig-zag
4. Second Rhythm
5. Talk Ing Radiance
6. Concrete Lily
7. Lip Sync
8. A
9. Venus
10. Grief In Phantasia

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith released several collections of delicate, bewitching solo music on cassette in the 1980s and 90s. The 2021 release of Till Another Time: 1988-1996, Captured Tracks’ compilation of Smith’s work, has helped bestow rightful critical acclaim to the ahead-of-her-time artist. Now, Captured Tracks dives deeper into Smith’s catalog with the release of two full-length companion albums, Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, available for the first time on vinyl & streaming formats.

Recorded at Smith’s home in Baltimore in 1995, Nothing Else Matters chronicles the tension between the mundanity of daily life and the creative impulse: Traffic noises on the charmingly boisterous “Little To Be Won” showcase this levity, as does the addition of playful hand claps and a laugh track to her striking cover of Young Marble Giants’ “Salad Days.” I So Liked Spring, recorded the following year, saw Smith experimenting with the unique challenge of putting another artist’s words to music. She’d come across a biography of the English poet Charlotte Mew and found her wistful poetry rife for musical interpretation. The songs on I So Liked Spring are delightfully unpredictable, full of upbeat melodies and spellbinding vocal harmonies. This is perhaps best showcased on the title track, one of Smith’s most popular songs to date, a lovelorn anthem that recalls the airy melodies of early dream pop.

Both of these albums showcase the mesmerizing charm of Smith’s songwriting, often compared to the likes of the Velvet Underground and Laurie Anderson. Home recording technology has come a long way since Smith first began recording demos on her tape machine, but her influence reverberates through the work of today’s bedroom artists. The release of these two essential albums seeks to further illuminate this connection, welcoming a new generation of listeners to the work of this trailblazing artist.

TRACK LISTING

1.Fin De Fete
2.Again
3.The Pedlar
4.Rooms
5.Afternoon Tea
6.I So Liked Spring
7.From A Window
8.Absence
9.A Quoi Bon Dire
10.In The Fields
11.May 1915
12.Not For That City 

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith released several collections of delicate, bewitching solo music on cassette in the 1980s and 90s. The 2021 release of Till Another Time: 1988-1996, Captured Tracks’ compilation of Smith’s work, has helped bestow rightful critical acclaim to the ahead-of-her-time artist. Now, Captured Tracks dives deeper into Smith’s catalog with the release of two full-length companion albums, Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, available for the first time on vinyl & streaming formats.

Recorded at Smith’s home in Baltimore in 1995, Nothing Else Matters chronicles the tension between the mundanity of daily life and the creative impulse: Traffic noises on the charmingly boisterous “Little To Be Won” showcase this levity, as does the addition of playful hand claps and a laugh track to her striking cover of Young Marble Giants’ “Salad Days.” I So Liked Spring, recorded the following year, saw Smith experimenting with the unique challenge of putting another artist’s words to music. She’d come across a biography of the English poet Charlotte Mew and found her wistful poetry rife for musical interpretation. The songs on I So Liked Spring are delightfully unpredictable, full of upbeat melodies and spellbinding vocal harmonies. This is perhaps best showcased on the title track, one of Smith’s most popular songs to date, a lovelorn anthem that recalls the airy melodies of early dream pop.

Both of these albums showcase the mesmerizing charm of Smith’s songwriting, often compared to the likes of the Velvet Underground and Laurie Anderson. Home recording technology has come a long way since Smith first began recording demos on her tape machine, but her influence reverberates through the work of today’s bedroom artists. The release of these two essential albums seeks to further illuminate this connection, welcoming a new generation of listeners to the work of this trailblazing artist.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Answers To Your Question
2. In No Uncertain Terms
3. I'll Never See You Again
4. For Here Or To Go
5. In The Hospital
6. Bright Side
7. All Of The Blue
8. Only A Moment
9. I See Your Face
10. It Seems To Me
11. Little To Be Won
12. Nothing Else Matters
13. Salad Days

Originally released in conjunction with a barbecue DeMarco hosted to promote Another One and collect food bank donations, Some Other Ones soon gained cult status, now regarded amongst his fans as a key entry in his beloved catalog. Now, almost 10 years later, and following the success of his recent full-length instrumental album Five Easy Hot Dogs, Some Other Ones is finally getting the full release treatment.

TRACK LISTING

1. Little Pepper
2. Onion Man
3. Peter Pickles
4. Don Juan
5. Young Coconut
6. Hachiko
7. Fish Terry
8. Hoso Boyo
9. Special K

Because Hold, Jack Tatum’s fifth album under the moniker Wild Nothing, was written in the aftermath of new parenthood during the pandemic, it was probably inevitable that it would be searching and existential music. But during the recording process, the artist known for synth-pop tastefulness used it as an opportunity to reach for a new sonic maximalism and wider set of influences. With contributions from longtime collaborator Jorge Elbrecht, Tommy Davidson of Beach Fossils and Hatchie’s Harriette Pilbeam, first single “Headlights On” features an acid house-worthy bass groove and breakbeat that prove Tatum is playing for the rafters.

Tatum produced the rest of the record on his own, partially out of necessity, due to the challenges of the pandemic. The songs were eventually brought to Adrian Olsen at Montrose Recording in Richmond to begin recording drums and filling in the gaps. While largely a product of isolation, Hold also reflects the things Tatum has learned from collaborators, both on previous records and during his acclaimed work with Japanese Breakfast and Molly Burch. The rest of the record was mixed by Geoff Swan, who listeners might know for his work with Caroline Polachek and Charli XCX. Swan put Tatum’s vocals high in the mix, and throughout the album, he embraces playful vocal processing like never before.

Tatum moved from Los Angeles back to his home state of Virginia about five years ago in search of a scaled-back lifestyle. The relatively suburban environment—and the occasional regret it inspired—proved to be great artistic fodder. It’s the para- dox of modern America—the suburbs are supposed to be stultifying to art, but they are so full of human desperation perfect for dramatizing. On “Suburban Solutions”, he presents an anti-jingle with an acidly bright synthesizer melody, imploring you to sign on the dotted line, put your feet up, and embrace sweet oblivion.

Adding to the song’s menacing cheeriness is a chorus-sung bridge, made with as- sistance from Molly Burch and Tatum’s wife, Dana, It was loosely inspired by the classic Martika song “Toy Soldiers” and the long-ago pop craze for children’s choirs, and he embraces the trend’s less-than-stellar reputation. By design, Hold dwells in uncertainty and fear, but in a package that encourages meditation and a bit of fun. “In the face of the pandemic, I think being a parent really forced my hand,” Tatum said. “I felt that I had no other choice but to have a positive outlook on the world. Because if I were to give in at any moment and say, “Oh, everything is horrible,” then I’ll feel as if I’ve lost and I’ve given up on my son being able to thrive in this world.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another beautiful selection of hazy melodies and airy jangle from the ever-talented Jack Tatum, just this time we veer into silken synthpop territory. It's just as perfectly formed and shows what a breadth of styles Tatum has as his disposal.

TRACK LISTING

1. Headlights On
2. Basement El Dorado
3. The Bodybuilder
4. Suburban Solutions
5. Presidio
6. Dial Tone
7. Histrion
8. Prima
9. Alex
10. Little Chaos

For Molly Burch, the age 13 was a seminal moment in life that has shaped the path that she is on now. Burch's fourth album, Daydreamer, explores the feelings and insecurities of this critical stage. Burch has recently relocated to her hometown of Los Angeles, but while she was still residing in Austin, she visited home and did that thing our parents love to have us do: rummage through old boxes to see what shit we can throw away. Upon finding her old diaries from age 13 and younger, Burch was brought to tears. Realizing how cruel she was to herself then, and how she still harbors many of those same self-critiques. It was this visit that forced her to take responsibility for where she was currently at in life, anxiety and body issues and all, and to try to let go of old habits.

The thematic territory mined on Daydreamer makes it her most personal album yet, and though yes, she says that about all of her albums, this one in particular is a conversation between Burch's state of being when she was younger and how she feels currently as an adult. Daydreamer boasts a sharper, much cleaner production approach and a bit more pop than Burch's previous records, thanks to producer Jack Tatum (Wild Nothing). The result is music that feels stirring and sweeping, pulling in sounds and influences of the past, while also propelling Burch into a further development of herself as an artist.

On the surface, lead single "Physical" is a dark and sultry '80s mid-tempo jam with an intro that could very well be on the soundtrack to a John Carpenter horror film. It's also about Burch's public struggles with PMS. The album also returns to themes that have become somewhat of a signature for Burch, such as unrequited love on "Unconditional." And then there's "Tattoo," one of the more emotional songs on the album, where Burch writes an ode to her best friend in high school who took her own life in 2009. It's the longest Burch has ever taken to write a song, an ethereal ballad featuring sweeping harp and backup vocals from Luna Li (Hannah Kim).

Though the album spends time with mournful, anxious reflections, the songs on Daydreamer never feel bogged down in bleakness or morbidity. Burch's ability to take the darkest moments of her life and translate them to a universal language lays the ground for her most masterful pop writing to-date. Daydreamer is dedicated not only to her thirteen year-old self, but the thirteen year-old selves of listeners that still lingers within them. As children, we escape the world and our scariest thoughts through daydreaming. When Burch was a kid, she would daydream about how life would look when she was older, when she'd presumably have all her shit together. Now, as an adult, she finds herself daydreaming about what's next in life, what she'll create in the future, and the person she wants to be.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Molly Burch has always been a big hit in the shop, with her 2021 LP 'Romantic Images' proving a bit hit with customers too, so it's exciting to get her latest for Captured Tracks, the captivating 'Daydreamer'. With heartfelt lyrical emotion bombs like 'Tattoo' interspersed with less emotionally wrought, but equally beautiful 50's adjacent lounge-pop swooners. It's a beautifully written, deeply emotional journey.

TRACK LISTING

1. Made Of Glass
2. Physical
3. Baby Watch My Tears Dry
4. 2003
5. Tattoo
6. Unconditional
7. Heartburn
8. Champion
9. Beauty Rest
10. Bed

Since moving to Nashville to start their music career in 2012, Becca Mancari has been lauded for their dextrous songwriting and prodigious guitar playing. Their sophomore album The Greatest Part, released in 2020, was an indie rock opus that garnered acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, and more. After its release, however, Mancari was despairing. An illness in their family, coupled with a realization that their alcohol dependency had become untenable, led Mancari to begin the hard work of taking ownership of their existence by mending broken relationships and investing in their mental health. “I didn’t realize it then, but looking back, I was a passenger in my own life,” Mancari says.

The transformative period of self-reckoning was the catalyst that ultimately steered Mancari to write and produce their triumphant new album, Left Hand. After a disheartening studio session with an outside producer, Becca became convinced that they were capable of rendering their vision independently. Close friend and musical ally Juan Solorzano, who has played on all of Mancari’s albums since the debut of Good Woman in 2017, joined them in the studio to co-produce the majority of the record. In addition, Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves, Demi Lovato) co-wrote and co-produced the song “Don’t Close Your Eyes,” encouraging Mancari to track every instrument on the initial demos.

As much as self-producing this album was an act of resilience and growth in one’s own craft, Mancari brought trusted friends like Brittany Howard, who they play with in Bermuda Triangle, Julien Baker and Zac Farro into the process. Insecurities that had dogged Mancari since childhood couldn’t weather the force of energy in that studio, where they executed decisions with newfound certainty. The title track, “Left Hand,” is named for the Mancari family crest. After a lifetime spent feeling like they didn’t belong, Mancari unlocked a perfect metaphor in the crest: “In many cultures children born with a dominant left hand were taught not to use that hand, and were told that using the right hand was ‘normal’ and ‘correct.’

Similarly, queer children are often times told that it’s not ‘normal’ for them to love who they love and that they need to ‘change.’” On Left Hand, Mancari offers the listener a collection of songs that should be played in moments when we are in need of reassurance and encouragement. No song exemplifies this better than the ebullient track “Over and Over,” which is a reminder to friends that happiness doesn’t need to be fleeting. “I wanted to write a queer pop song that has meat on its bones,” they say. Inspired by one of many reckless and joyful hangs with dear friends in Nashville, the enlivening pop song makes a promise to them, and to the greater community Mancari embraces on this album.

“There is something to the feeling/ Head hanging out of the window/ Being ok that we don’t know,” sung on the chorus over a beat replete with congas and shakers. What follows is a promise to anyone who ever feels like the greatest moments of their life are disappearing in the rearview: “We can have it like we used to, over and over and over and over again.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Don’t Even Worry
2. Homesick Honeybee
3. Over And Over
4. Don’t Close Your Eyes
5. Mexican Queen
6. Left Hand
7. It’s Too Late
8. Eternity
9. I Had A Dream
10. I Needed You
11. You Don’t Scare Me
12. To Love The Earth

From teddy grahams to pussy hats, California forest fires to cash cabs, the stuff of American nostalgia and horror adorns a personal reckoning on Christina Schneider’s triumphant third album as Locate S,1. With a name culled from a Daschel Hammitt noir novel, Wicked Jaw pulls from wildly disparate references and textures to survey the history of American pop music. Like Pat Benatar soundtracking an Adam Curtis documentary, the album trades in dramatic juxtapositions across its kaleidoscopic ten tracks. Only Schneider could pull off singing a line like “season finale 2020 death machine” as a soothing lullaby, but jarring contrasts echo the tumultuous personal journey woven throughout. “I was in hell ... and loving it,” Schneider said of her childhood, describing a murky cocktail of sentimentality and despair. “It’s like when you escape the matrix and then you remember your wonderful time in the matrix.” The Athens, Georgia based songwriter, producer, and virtuosic pop connoisseur authored the album over two years while beginning treatment for childhood sexual abuse by a relative. “I was using these songs as an expression valve for all of these different parts (of myself) that I was trying to integrate,” she explained. The result is a surprisingly tender and often jubilant set of conversations with the ghosts of painful memories, Schneider transforming her metaphysical scars into gleaming armor as she redefines herself on her own terms.

Following 2020’s Personalia, an album Schneider created in collaboration with producer and romantic partner Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) – where reviews often displaced credit for Schneider’s intricate electropop to Barnes – Wicked Jaw finds Schneider decidedly and unequivocally at the helm, as the album’s sole producer. It's a stylistic departure from Personalia in many ways, beyond personnel. Spanning decades and genres from doowop to cold wave, disco to soft rock, Wicked Jaw has the vitality of full band tracking at its core. Recorded to a 24 track tape machine during a weeklong session in the summer of 2022, it features deft and magnificently wackadoo performances from players including Ross Brand (guitar, percussion), Jojo Glidewell (piano, synth, percussion), Zack Milster (bass, percussion, pedal steel), and Clayton Rychlik (drums, percussion, sax) among others.

Wicked Jaw both is and isn’t a pandemic album. The dystopic terror of COVID-19 is an omnipresent touchpoint in the songs, which Schneider began writing in the summer of 2020, but the virus functions as a gateway for interpersonal analysis and reflection. What does it mean to be an American in the 21st century? What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a survivor? Schneider digs tunnels into collective memory on songs like “Go Back to Disnee,” a devastating bossa nova track that could soundtrack an episode of White Lotus. “Under the blankets, into the plastic dreams / Into the comfort of parental regimes,” Schneider purrs with a delivery so gentle that you might not detect the venom seeping through. On this tune and others, Schneider’s exceptional songcraft is most evident through her ability to excavate the toxins lingering beneath the surface in a way where they begin to shine and radiate a strange beauty.

“Beauty throws darkness and pain into relief so you can see it more clearly,” Schneider said of this songwriting tendency. While her lyrics do a sort of time traveling alchemy on past wounds, the sonic palette of the record is the real time machine. The running joke in the studio was that Wicked Jaw should be called “Radio Free Christina,” since it felt like turning the radio dial from song to song. How else would we get an album that boasts both Dido and Thin Lizzy as musical references? But the breadth of its melodic toolkit is held together by the singularity of Schneider’s compositional voice. Although Wicked Jaw is among her most accessible releases yet, chock full of infectious hooks, these songs still feature what her bandmates call trademark “Christina-isms” – the odd metered phrases and unusual time signatures that keep the listener on their toes and the songs firmly rooted in a space of experimental sophistipop.

Lead single “You Were Right About One Thing” is a case in point. Composed with the aim of harkening classic Christine McVie hits, the easiness of this song for the listener belies an innovative underlying architecture, where complex rhythms and wild chordal leaps are somehow smooth as silk. Meanwhile, Schneider applies the same tender veneer to the song’s challenging lyrical content. “Wrote all my worst fears down when i conjured you,” she sings to a past lover who treated her badly. These memories aren’t recounted with resentment or anger, but with compassion for the ways that intergenerational trauma bears out on relationships, shaping the patterns we struggle not to repeat. “In the end, it's like, ‘can I really hate you for hurting me when I chose you to hurt me?” Schneider said, explaining that the song came from a place of “trying to reconcile forgiveness for yourself and for the other person, so you can both grow.”

Wicked Jaw offers a similar therapeutic release upon repeat listens as it did for Schneider when she wrote it. It’s a portrait of commanding and loving resilience in the face of victimization and apocalyptic doom. The potency of these songs resides not in their grasping toward the heavens, seeking escape or transcendence, but rather from digging in the dirt, sitting with it, and really seeing the worms and rot and entropy in vivid technicolor. “This is about me, but I hope other people relate to it,” Scheider said. “I have all these emotional problems that make me react like a fucking monster, but that is also forged by my experience and there’s something there that I can be proud of, that’s part of my survival. I can’t just cut the head off – I have to integrate it into myself.” 

TRACK LISTING

1. You Were Right About One Thing
2. Go Back To Disnee
3. Pieta
4. Heart Attack
5. The Hard Way
6. Danielle
7. Have You Got It Yet?
8. Blue Meaniez
9. Daffodil
10. Wicked Jaw 

There’s freedom to be found in consistency. Until recently, Juan Wauters may not have agreed with this statement. As a touring musician and multinational citizen, transience had always come naturally to him. Circumstance, however, recently prompted him to reconsider the benefits of staying in one place. His most introspective work to date, Wauters’ sixth solo album Wandering Rebel finds the artist taking stock of how he’s changed, how the world sees him, and what he wants out of life.

Written mostly during an extended break from touring, the songs on Wandering Rebel are candid reflections on subjects like career (“Wandering Rebel”),romantic commitment (“Amor Amor”), mental health (“Nube Negra”) and the personal toll of touring (“Let Loose”). On “Modus Operandi,” he voices his frustration with New York’s fair-weather residents, who fled the city at theonset of the COVID-19 lockdown. Vocal contributions from fellow New Yorker Greta Kline (Frankie Cosmos) add to the chorus of playful disapproval. On the singalong-worthy “Millionaire,” he turns his eye to the west coast: “It’s hard to get around Los Angeles / If you don’t have a car / I’m staying in a privileged part of town / It’s suspicious for me to be walking.”

The clarity with which Wauters approaches these subjects lyrically is reflected in the music as well. His trademark eclecticism is still present (fans of Real Life Situations’ spirited hip-hop should look to track 6, “Bolero”), but it’s more refined this time, anchored in his signature Latin-influenced indie folk. Wandering Rebel is peppered with delicate additions that add depth throughout: rain sounds and hand drums on “Nube Negra,” a strings section on “Modus Operandi,” a gentle vibraphone on “Amor, Amor.” Some of these are classic Wauters touches, but others are owed to outside influences, like production from Brooklyn-based Carlos Hernandez (Ava Luna, Carlos Truly) and Brazilian indie artist Sessa, as well as vocal contributions from Kline, Luz Elena Mendoza (Y La Bamba), Zoe Gotusso, and Super Willy K.

Throughout Wandering Rebel, Wauters attempts to reconcile the stability he’s come to enjoy with the nomadic restlessness that’s characterized his life thus far. In the end, though, it’s the interplay of both of these elements that makes the album so strong.

TRACK LISTING

1. Eloping
2. Milanesa Al Pan
3. Nube Negra
4. Amor, Amor
5. Modus Operandi
6. Bolero
7. Mensaje Codificado
8. Millionaire
9. Wandering Rebel
10. Carriage
11. Let Loose
12. En Un Barrio De Montevideo

On Everything Harmony, the fourth full-length studio release from New York’s The Lemon Twigs, the prodigiously talented brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario offer 13 original servings of beauty that showcase an emotional depth and musical sophistication far beyond their years as a band, let alone as young men.

Everything Harmony successfully blends the brothers’ distinct personalities while giving voice to their eclectic influences. Opening the album with the unassuming acoustic folk of plaintive “When Winter Comes Around,” which echoes the sophisticated grandeur of classic Simon & Garfunkel recordings, they immediately switch things up to the sunny classic pop motif of “In My Head.” “Corner of My Eye” channels an Art Garfunkel-like vocal melody over a moody, vibraphone-tinged backing track suggesting the chamber pop of Brian Wilson.

While they had no grand concept for Everything Harmony, both the D’Addarios felt a “palpable mood of defeat” prevailed while writing and recording it. “New To Me” was inspired by their shared experience with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s, “What You Were Doing” is dressed in the tortured jangle of vintage Big Star, while “Born To Be Lonely,” written after watching John Cassavetes’ Opening Night, deals with what Brian calls “the fragility that often comes with age.”

Everything Harmony is a unified song cycle born of shared blood and common purpose. With two musical heads being better than one, there’s no shortage of ideas to draw on. Their only impediments are time and the challenge of keeping up with their own prolific musical inspiration. “We share an intuition and tend to be influenced by one another,” says Brian, “so the lyrical ideas on this record tend to complement each other. Writing has never been the issue for us. It’s completing, editing and compiling that takes the time. We’re trapped in a web of songs!”

TRACK LISTING

1. When Winter Comes Around
2. In My Head
3. Corner Of My Eye
4. Any Time Of Day
5. What You Were Doing
6. I Don’t Belong To Me
7. Every Day Is The Worst Day Of My Life
8. What Happens To A Heart
9. Still It’s Not Enough
10. Born To Be Lonely
11. Ghost Run Free
12. Everything Harmony
13. New To Me

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2023 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Live recording of the one-night-only DIIV Unplugged show at Murmrr Theatre in Brooklyn on August 17th, 2017. Mixed by Jarvis Taveniere, mastered by Alex DeTurk. Includes unique arrangements of songs off DIIV's first two albums (Oshin and Is The Is Are), as well as covers of My Bloody Valentine and Alex G

TRACK LISTING

1. Druun
2. Past Lives
3. Human
4. When You Sleep
5. Dopamine
6. Hollow
7. Loose Ends
8. How Long Have You Known
9. Under The Sun
10. Earthboy
11. Wait

Kate Fagan took the Chicago punk scene by storm in the early 80’s with her self-released single “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool,” which became the best-selling single ever by a local artist at the legendary Wax Trax! Records. Today, Captured Tracks is thrilled to present an expanded, re-mastered edition of I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool as a full-length vinyl album. Fagan wrote “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool” after moving to Chicago from New York in the late 70’s. The track is a critique of the emergent “hipster” attitude of the disco crowd and the posturing she was witnessing among her peers in New York. With its surf-inspired drum machine, irresistible melody, and defiant lyrics, “Too Cool” was immediately embraced by club DJs, radio stations, and independent record stores. Its b-side, “Waiting For The Crisis,” also gained notice for its raw musical style and politically charged Reagan-era lyrics, which still resonate today. In the years that followed, Fagan continued to break new ground. In 1980, she co-founded the enormously popular ska band Heavy Manners (whose dance parties are still legendary), and with them opened shows for The Clash, Grace Jones, Peter Tosh, The English Beat, and many more.

The “Too Cool” single became a sought-after rarity among record collectors for decades after its initial release, until Manufactured Recordings gave it a proper reissue in 2016. Captured Tracks’ expanded 2023 follow-up features four unreleased songs, which encapsulate the gutsy, new wave energy that pulses through the original single. The final track, the reggae-tinged “Say It”, features production from the reggae legend Peter Toshand Bob Marley’s guitarist Donald Kinsey, who flew in from Jamaica to record with Heavy Manners after witnessing their impassioned live show. While the 2016 reissue re-established Fagan’s cult-classic status for a new audience, this new expanded release solidifies her place in a tradition of trailblazing, powerhouse frontwomen.

TRACK LISTING

1 I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool
2 Waiting For The Crisis
3 Master Of Passion
4 Come Over
5 Cover It Up
6 Take Your Chances
7 Something’s Wrong
8 Say It

The Brattleboro, Vermont trio THUS LOVE stand together, a bond cemented by their experience as outsiders looking in. For THUS LOVE, DIY is an ethos that reflects not only their musical vision but their very existence as three self-identifying trans artists. From the band’s inception, Echo Mars (she/her), Lu Racine (he/him) and Nathaniel van Osdol (they/them) have lived together under the same roof, designed and produced their own merch, and created their own recording studio from scratch. “I realize that most artists don’t live this way,” says Mars. “But for us, it was never really a choice. The art we make is so tied to who we are and the community we’re a part of, that this is the only way we can possibly do it.”

The band was just starting to regularly headline renowned local venue The Stone Church when everything came to a screeching halt. Rather than idly wait, the band decided to take their future in their own hands. Armed with nothing but YouTube videos and her innate curiosity, Mars constructed a makeshift studio in their apartment, recording during odd hours when their next-door neighbors were out and about.

Looking back now, Mars is glad the band decided to forge ahead. “I obviously would never want to go through a pandemic again, but I’m pretty confident in saying that this album would not be coming out in 2022 if we hadn’t had the forced downtime.” Their resulting debut, Memorial, is a stunningly accomplished album. The hallmarks will be unmistakable to anyone who has ever obsessed over classic LPs from indie and post-punk’s progenitors—everything from the chiming, Marr-esque guitars on opener “Repitioner” to the pugnacious rhythmic punch on lead single “In Tandem”. But even more impressive and exciting is how THUS LOVE manage to tap into this celebrated lineage to find their own unique voice and tell their own story.

Ultimately, despite the many difficulties and setbacks, the story of THUS LOVE and Memorial is one of triumph. Of seeking meaning in struggle. Of embracing community and love. Of finding joy in rebirth. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Repetitioner
2. In Tandem
3. Anathema
4. Family Man
5. Morality
6. Friend
7. Pith And Point
8. Crowd
9. Inamorato
10. Memorial 

Written in the months before and after the release of their critically acclaimed fifth album Plum, The Jacket feels like a full-circle moment for the duo of singer-songwriter Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas. Thematically, it considers Plum’s broader questions about the values ascribed to one’s time and labor through the more refined lens of performance and music-making. This is due in part to the band’s recent return to New York City, the site of their own origin story, where they recorded The Jacket at the Diamond Mine with coproducer and noted Daptone Records affiliate Homer Steinweiss.

Reunions always breed reflection, and Hamilton admits that much of the album’s themes are tied to formative experiences in the band’s own early years. Some songs speak to the process of moving on (“Unwind”, “Salt”), while others muse about regret (“True Blue”, “Forget It”). The album’s namesake track considers the literal and figurative costumes we dress our personalities in: imbued with meaning and sense of time and place, becoming so representative of who we think we are before they’re ultimately left behind. The symbolic spaces of work, music, nightlife are seen through the haze of recalling one’s own unknown legends.

Sonically, The Jacket finds the band at their usual and best: dynamics shift seamlessly between gentle, drifting ballads and twangy jams, built up from layered guitars, dusty percussion and ambling bass lines. Elsewhere: whimsical flutes, choral textures, and basement organs. Thomas’s guitar playing is as lyrical and emotive as it’s ever been, and Hamilton’s voice: comfortable and effortless. This seamless dynamic is amplified perfectly in the mix by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House). Widowspeak expertly pepper in slow-core, dream-pop, pacific northwest indie, and outlaw country, resulting in a 60s-meets-90s aesthetic. This sense of sonic nostalgia adds another layer to lyrics that reflect on old selves, invented and true. The Jacket is a wizened meditation on performance and past lives from a band who’ve seen their fair share, hitting their stride now over a decade in.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Grooving bass and flickering percussion underpin the psychedelic vocal delivery and hypnotic driven guitars of the brilliant Widowspeak, and it's on 'The Jacket' we really get to see them shine. A wonderfully engrossing and brilliantly satisfying listen.

TRACK LISTING

1. While You Wait
2. Everything Is Simple
3. Salt
4. True Blue
5. The Jacket
6. Unwind
7. The Drive
8. Slow Dance
9. Forget It
10. Sleeper

“Home” is a tough thing to pinpoint for someone who’s constantly in motion. Scout Gillett knows this well, but since relocating from Kansas City in 2017, she’s found one in Brooklyn’s DIY scene, playing in multiple live bands and even starting her own booking company to organize local shows. Her intrepid nature results from a childhood spent running barefoot through rural Missouri and coming of age in Kansas City’s punk scene. Her debut solo album no roof no floor is a bold and spirited yet warm, intimate meditation on trust, surrender, and what makes a home.

Following the sudden overdose of a lover in 2018 and the onset of the 2020 quarantine, Scout returned to Missouri in search of reprieve. Instead, she was dismayed to find that her hometown was suffering; friends and family members were caught in the grips of drug and alcohol addiction. Overcome by grief and helplessness, she retreated inward, channeling her fears and frustrations, as she always had, into songwriting. The resulting songs were more vulnerable than any of her prior work, and it was a while before the notion of sharing them even occurred to her. Then Nick Kinsey, the album’s producer, called from his recording studio The Chicken Shack in Stanfordville, New York to tell Scout that his friends Ellen Kempner (Palehound) and David Lizmi (MS MR) had relocated upstate, and were interested in working on an album with her.

Recorded in a big wooden barn with the doors wide open, there’s a sense of spaciousness on no roof no floor befitting its title. On some songs, there are even audible cricket chirps. The arrangements, too—which feature contributions from Kempner, Lizmi, and Kevin Copeland (The Big Net)—reflect Scout’s rural roots and her indie spirit; a fusion of upbeat, guitar-driven melodies and folk/country instrumentation like pedal steel, harmonica, and tenor banjo. All of these elements are underpinned by Scout’s signature soaring, velvet vocals and openhearted lyricism. She arrives at her thesis on the haunting six-minute centerpiece “hush, stay quiet”: “you can only save yourself,” she muses over a resolute guitar. We can’t always know what to expect, even in a place we’ve been before. With a little trust, though, we can find a safe place within. No roof required.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lonesome Dove
2. Slow Dancin’
3. No Roof No Floor
4. 444 Marcy Ave
5. Signal
6. Hush, Stay Quiet
7. Mother Of Myself
8. Strangers In Silence
9. Western Eyes
10. Crooked

Mac DeMarco’s debut full length, 2, released in 2012, cleaned up the songwriter’s warped take on soft rock and brought it to a broader audience. Given DeMarco’s affinity for keeping things lo-fi — 2 was the first time he’d bothered to record demos — it’s revealing to hear these songs in their most embryonic form. The performances here are a little looser and the sound a little hazier than on the actual LP, lending an atmosphere of dreamy vulnerability, especially to ballads like “Annie” and the Lennon-esque “Sherrill.”

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1
1. Cooking Up Something Good
2. Dreamin’
3. Freaking Out The Neighborhood
4. Annie
5. Ode To Viceroy
6. Robson Girl
7. The Stars Keep On Calling My Name 8. My Kind Of Woman
9. Boe Zaah
10. Sherrill
11. Still Together

Disc 2
1. Cooking Up Something Good
2. Stars Keep Calling My Name
3. Dreamin’ Slow
4. Lonely Shredder
5. Robson Girl
6. Annie
7. Harrison Ford Escort
8. Sherrill
9. My Kind Of Woman (Instrumental)
10. Dreamin’ Fast

On June 26 2012, DIIV released their seminal debut record, Oshin . The album received critical acclaim from Pitchfork granting it “Best New Music,” NME ranked it in the Top 10 among its “Albums of the Year,” and it positioned DIIV as a central influence on the sound and aesthetic of the 2010s Brooklyn indie music scene.

Beginning in 2011 as the nom-de-plume of Z. Cole Smith, musical provo - cateur and frontman of the atmospheric and autumnally-charged four- piece, DIIV created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut single “Sometime.” DIIV craft a sound that is at once familial and frost-bitten. Indebted to classic kraut, dreamy Creation- records psychedelia, and the primitive-crunch of late-80s Seattle, the band walk a divisive yet perfectly fused patch of classic-underground influence on their debut LP.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary, this limited edition 2xLP combines the Oshin tracklist with the original Oshin demos recorded by Smith, and two live cuts recorded at storied Brooklyn DIY venue Shea Stadium - including the never before released “Yuk”.

The expansive packaging includes a craft paper die-cut widespine housed in a clear printed PVC sleeve, vinyl pressed on blue marble (to commemorate the very first limited edition pressing of Oshin on Captured Tracks), a DIIV “Fuck The World” poster, and a retrospective booklet with archival photos, reflections from each bandmember, new writing from the original “Oshin” poet, Madeline Jones, and exanded liners by Shaad D’Souza

TRACK LISTING

LP1:
1. (Druun)
2. Past Lives
3. Human
4. Air Conditioning
5. How Long Have You Known
6. Wait
7. Earthboy
8. (Druun Pt II)
9. Follow
10. Sometime
11. Oshin (Subsume)
12. Doused 13. Home

LP2:
1. (Druun) (Demo)
2. Past Lives (Demo)
3. Human (Demo)
4. Air Conditioning (Demo)
5. How Long Have You Known (Demo)
6. Wait (Demo)
7. Earthboy (Demo)
8. (Druun Pt II) (Demo)
9. Follow (Demo)
10. Sometime (Demo)
11. Oshin (Subsume) (Demo)
12. Doused (Demo)
13. Home (Demo)
14. Yuk (Live At Shea Sta - Dium 07-29-11)
15. Sometime (Live At Shea Stadium 11-29-11 )

Canadian songwriter and producer Jeremy Haywood-Smith needed an escape from his state of mourning when he began working on Sling-shot, his most recent LP as JayWood. After the loss of his mother in 2019, and a global standstill with multiple social crises throughout 2020, Haywood-Smith yearned for some forward momentum. “The idea of looking back to go forward became a really big thing for me—hence the title, Slingshot.” Feeling disconnected from his past and ancestry after the death of a parent, Haywood-Smith made a conscious effort to better understand his identity and unique Black experience living in the predominantly white province of Manitoba. Merging fantasy scenarios, personal anecdotes, and infectious pop and dance instrumentals, Slingshot is a self-portrait of JayWood at his surface and his depths.

Musically, Slingshot reaches into sounds and styles Haywood-Smith has continued to explore throughout his catalog. “I think I made a really big deal to not pigeonhole myself,” he explains. “Whatever is inspiring me at one point will work it’s way into whatever I’m creating.”Slingshot is an amalgamation of Haywood-Smith’s many musical sensibilities, achieved with help from a crew of talented peers. Haywood-Smith wrote and performed a bulk of the track’s instrumentations, but the LP has notable appearances from Canadian contemporaries Ami Cheon (on “Just Say-in”) and Mckinley Dixon (on “Shine.”) The album’s penultimate track, “Thank You,” was co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The song brings JayWood’s sound full circle, offering something reminiscent of Haywood-Smith’s earliest recordings, while flaunting that “The best is yet to come.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Crisp modern R&B, smoothly moving between the realms of more loungey groove into bright dancefloor synth business. A sonically diverse selection, but perfectly brought together with the skill of a talented producer. Ace.

TRACK LISTING

1. Intro (End Of An Era)
2. God Is A Reptile
3. Pray, Move On
4. All Night Long
5. Just Sayin (feat. Ami Cheon)
6. Is It True (Dreams Pt. 3)
7. Kitchen Floor
8. Shine (feat. Mckinley Dixon)
9. Tulips
10. YGBO - Interlude
11. Thank You
12. Arrival (Outro)

Reptaliens are ready to be direct. After exploring surreal realms of high concept synth-pop across two acclaimed albums, the Portland, Oregon, duo gained newfound clarity in a stark, grounded approach. That may seem unexpected for such a colorful act—known for heady lyrics about conspiracy theories and transhumanism—but Cole and Bambi Browning have streamlined to the lean, propulsive essentials on their self-produced new LP, Multiverse.

Shelving the dreamy synths altogether and working without their other bandmates due to lockdown, Reptaliens reset, picking up their guitars and emphasizing the catchy attack that’s been there all along. Drawing inspiration from the spontaneous energy of the ’90s alternative canon, the pair hit a surge in momentum after a casual-turned-revelatory listen to Jane’s Addiction’s 1990 classic “Been Caught Stealing.” Without even aiming to make a Reptaliens song, they wound up penning the set’s lead single “Like a Dog,” a sun-soaked groove-bomb that’s blissfully unencumbered by sonic baggage.

Across their first two albums Reptaliens established themselves as dedicated dreamers and deep thinkers, filling their wooly, homespun synth-pop with meditations on outré science fiction and philosophy. By contrast, Multiverse brings those lyrical concerns closer to home while the music takes a jangle-prone timeless form of subtly psychedelic guitar-pop, finding occasional dark cul-de-sacs but ultimately tending toward the light and breeze.

With mixing duties divided between Mikaelin “Blue” Bluespruce (Solange, Blood Orange) and Ross Brown from Kansas City bands Shy Boys and Fullbloods, Multiverse is a crisp pop record packed with surprising flourishes, from the crunchy chorus of “I Can’t Hide” to the smoky, serpentine guitar solo on “Jump.” Striking out into refreshing new directions at every turn, Multiverse indeed feels like a symbolic crossroads. And one that only yields more possibilities with each visit.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Feel Fine
2. Like A Dog
3. In Your Backyard
4. Take It
5. Don’t Wait For Me
6. Do You Know You Are Sleeping?
7. Go Away
8. Someone I Know
9. I Can’t Hide
10. Jump

Mouth Congress – friends Paul Bellini and Scott Thompson of Kids In The Hall fame - wrote and recorded hundreds of songs in the ‘80s with - out ever putting out a proper release. Alongside various cohorts and conspirators, the band drew on their experiences as gay men to craft hilariously crude punk songs that run the gamut of strange characters and taboo subject matter. Their rag tag approach to songwriting blended various styles from noisy punk to lo-fi new wave and DIY disco, all with a very gay bent. Without trying, they were surprisingly cutting edge. Mouth Congress did dozens of live shows through the mid-80s that gained a reputation for being theatrical, combining props, sets, multiple costume changes, unusual song choices, guest stars, and Scott’s stand-up comedy.

In 1988, they recorded a 7-song demo tape. The tracks were recorded quickly, as the Kids in the Hall were about to go to New York City to develop their material. Then, caught up in the excitement of the Kids in the Hall being signed to television, Mouth Congress activities slowed to a crawl. In 2011, Paul dug out an old VHS tape of one of the live shows. The sight of one of the Kids in the Hall covered in sweat, writhing on stage like Iggy Pop, was something he felt comedy fans might enjoy seeing. Naturally, Scott agreed and they uploaded everything - over 600 recordings - onto Bandcamp.

One day in 2019, Mike Sniper of Captured Tracks stumbled upon the Bandcamp page, got in touch, and suggested assembling a compilation of the best recordings to be officially released for the very first time. Waiting for Henry is a collection of 29 tracks over 2 LPs with a booklet of interviews and ephemera from one of the ‘80s last queercore bands. Who is Henry? We don’t really know, but we certainly hope he shows up soon.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sex And Love
2. Be My Hole
3. Heavy Breather
4. Guess I’ll Just Jerk Off Again
5. Wind In My Belly
6. Guilt
7. Band From France
8. Tom
9. Womyn
10. What Is This Thing Called Love?
11. Fascist Love Song
12. Lullaby On Blow
13. Why?
14. We Back Together
15. Young And Alive In 1975
16. Thanks For The Disco
17. A Wig
18. Pepper Pot
19. Lorenzo The Chef
20. Give In
21. The People Have Spoken
22. What Do I Wear On A Trip To The Moon?
23. Christopher
24. Testicle Delight
25. Water Nymph
26. A Queen’s Lament
27. Julie Newmar
28. Madamifesto
29. Let’s Hear It For Show Business

After a four-year hiatus exploring ambient and meditation music, Danish multi- instrumentalist Anders Rhedin has returned to his indie roots. Dream Work, his third album as Dinner, is a lush collection of synth and guitar-laden indie pop that expertly channels Ryuichi Sakamoto, early British indie, and the sound of water.

Like most worthwhile pursuits, the path to Dream Work hasn’t been straight. After signing to Captured Tracks in 2014, he released a series of synth-based avant-pop albums and toured the world with the likes of Mac Demarco, Sean Nicholas Savage, Prince Rama, and King Gizzard, all while splitting his time be - tween Berlin, LA and his native Copenhagen. This whirlwind period ended when, following the release of 2017’s New Work, Rhedin relocated to Copenhagen and took a step back from the Dinner project in order to explore his long standing personal interest in ambient production and guided meditation. Over the last few years, he’s released a series of ambient releases under his own name geared towards meditation, sleep, and relaxation. He’s also led live guided sound baths and meditations at art museums, churches, and rooftops all over the world.

The time away proved fruitful - returning to the Dinner project with fresh eyes, Rhedin sought not to reproduce his previous style, but rather to integrate these two components of his body of work. As a result, Dream Work sounds at once classic and entirely new; a deft balance of Rhedin’s trademark electro-pop with the meditative and organic elements of his ambient work. From the melancholy acoustic guitar and downtempo synth melody of “Spirit Voices” to the ethereal refrain on “Connection”, Rhedin washes his pop songwriting in dark, dreamy tex - tures. These textures lend cohesion to the far-reaching collection - Dinner effort - lessly floats from Stereolab-like electric guitar (“Anima”) to twinkling synth-pop (“Midnight In My Head”) to fluid ambient (“Drøm”) in the span of just 34 minutes. Contributions from labelmates Molly Burch and Charlie Hilton as well as Lina Tullgren, Nicolai Koch help bolster this quality: much like Rhedin himself, Dream Work feels well-traveled even when it’s standing in place.

TRACK LISTING

1. Midnight In My Head
2. How We Talk
3. Big Empty Sky
4. Like You Said
5. Anima
6. Connection
7. Spirit Voices
8. Grateful (Best Shit)
9. Born Again
10. Drøm 

Romantic Images, Molly Burch’s third album, marks a distinct evolution for Burch, both emotionally and sonically. Recorded in Denver with Tennis’ Alaina Moore and Pat Riley producing, the collection celebrates the timeless delights of a well-crafted pop song, flirting with Blondie, Madonna, and even Mariah Carey as it forges a joyful soundtrack to liberation and self-discovery.

Burch deliberately worked with more women collaborators than ever before on the album, and the results are transcendent, reveling in the passion and the power of the divine feminine. The collection prioritizes ecstasy and escape, and Burch’s commitment to collective catharsis in her lifted, airy delivery manages to exude both thoughtful introspection and carefree abandon all at once. The shadow still lurks on the album, to be sure, but the light ultimately wins, and the result is an intoxicating collection all about coming into our truest selves.

When it came to mixing and mastering the material, Burch put her faith in Gloria Kaba (Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest), Mikaelin “Blue” Bluespruce (Solange Knowles), and Heba Kadry (Bjork, Beach House) to truly understand where she was coming from with the music.

Burch designed the record to mirror the emotional journey that went into creating it, sequencing the music to work its way from jittery indecision to poised certainty over the course of ten mesmerizing tracks. Exhilarating opener “Control” takes a leap of faith as it learns to make peace with letting go, while the infectious “Heart Of Gold” grapples with wanting what you can’t have. By the time the silky “New Beginning” rolls around, Burch begins settling into a newfound sureness that dominates the collection’s second half, with the addictive “Emotion” (a collaboration between Burch and her Captured Tracks labelmate Wild Nothing) celebrating a spectrum of emotions as fuel for creativity.

“I’ve written quite a bit about anxiety and heartbreak in the past,” Burch reflects, “but this record is more inspired by confidence and self-love. This is the most me I’ve ever sounded on an album.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: With a pretty legendary lineup of collaborators and producers working in conjunction with Burch, this was never going to be anything but superb. It's with a great deal of pleasure then, that I can confirm her singular writing style and unmistakeable vocal direction is at it's peak here. A brilliantly enjoyable and gorgeously evocative selection, drenched in nostalgic production and clever writing.

TRACK LISTING

1. Control
2. Games
3. Heart Of Gold
4. Romantic Images
5. New Beginning
6. Took A Minute
7. Emotion
8. Honeymoon Phase
9. Easy
10. Back In Time

Austin singer and songwriter Molly Burch returns this new year with a fresh sound on “Emotion’’, a disco-tinged, dynamic shot of adrenaline produced by Captured Tracks label-mate Wild Nothing (Jack Tatum).

In January 2020, Burch headed to Tatum’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia, looking to write new material with a distinct pop sound and production in mind. Sharing some of her latest demos and a playlist of her favorite pop bangers with Tatum, they set out to make a heart-pumping dance track of their own.

On “Emotion”, Burch’s voice is as strong and masterful as ever, pairing a lighter, polished vocal performance - a surprising, but captivatingdeparture from her signature smoky delivery - with Tatum’s compelling bass lines, beats, and shimmering synths. Burch says, “for me, the theme of the song is about feeling a spectrum of emotions, embracing that sensitivity, and using it as fuel to create something positive. “Emotion” is a celebration of being alive.”

TRACK LISTING

Side A: Emotion Feat. Wild Nothing
Side B: Needy

It is universally agreed that New Zealand’s Wax Chattels are a must- see live act; their hypnotically sinister debut captured this perfectly. Released in 2018 and supported by relentless touring, the eponymous album reached #7 on the New Zealand Album Charts, and release week saw the title feature as #1 in Rough Trade’s Top 20 New Releases. Tastemakers like NPR and A.V. Club came on as early champions. The album’s success at home and abroad led to the well-deserved nomina- tion of Best Alternative Artist at the 2018 New Zealand Music Awards, as well as the band’s inclusion in the coveted shortlist of finalists for the Taite Music Prize and Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award. After a knock-out entrée, the anticipation that surrounds their sophomore album, Clot, is immense.

Much like their debut, the writing process for Clot took the best part of a year. While some songs were written on the road, the bulk of the album was workshopped throughout 2019 across bedrooms and storage containers. Demos were fine-tuned before recording engi- neer James Goldsmith (Aldous Harding, Mermaidens) stepped in. The band maintained the use of only the barest of ingredients — bass guitar, keyboard, and a two-piece drum kit — but spent more time ex- perimenting with and finding new sounds. They wanted to maintain the same live element, but, this time, heavier — for which they enlisted the help of mixing engineer, and fellow noise-maker, Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Destruction Unit, The Men). The keyboards are thicker, the bass more intense. A marked step-up, this new record keeps the visceral energy of the debut, only this time they dig deeper into ca- thartic noise.

At Clot’s center is confrontation. “Mindfulness” asks do you accept the status quo over forcing tangible change? The vitriolic choruses of “Cede” are in Cheng’s native language — Taiwanese Hokkien — and are an indignant confrontation about Cross-Strait relations and self- determination. The experience of being a first generation immigrant is expressed in the melodic single “No Ties”. The song touches on cul- tural differences and the parental sacrifice of careers and support sys- tems to provide a “better” future for their children. The explosive arc of “Efficiency” describes knowing when to bide your time, and when to push, in which the band treads a line between the explicit and in- tuitive. This is carried through “An Eye”, in which the band stresses the physical harm and psychological breakdown emanating from the escalating racial and political uproar throughout the world. Though the band seethes and boils throughout, Clot concludes with a message of hope. Perhaps it’s this capacity for self-awareness that makes Wax Chattels one of New Zealand’s most treasured independent exports.

TRACK LISTING

1. Glue
2. Efficiency
3. Cede
4. Mindfulness
5. No Ties
6. Less Is More
7. Spanners & Implements
8. An Eye
9. Forever Marred
10. Yokohama
11. You Were Right

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2020 RELEASE AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLY AS PART OF THE AUGUST 29TH DROP DAY AT 6PM.
LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Color vinyl. Never before released three track 7" from Mouth Congress, the musical comedy duo of Scott Thompson and Paul Bellini, best known for Kids in the Hall.

Working under various aliases since 2014 — including CE Schneider Topical, Jepeto Solutions, Christina Schneider’s Genius Grant and now Locate S,1 — Christina Schneider has explored everything from groovy garage rock to minimalist bedroom pop to Syd Barrett-style psychedelia. Buoyed by her desire to create the same “crazy, powerful feeling” she gets when she hears an ABBA or Kate Bush song, she reached again for the outer limits of pop music and recorded Personalia , her sophomore album as Locate S,1 and debut release on Captured Tracks.

Schneider spends much of the album trying to understand and expel a darkness that has come over her (and society at large) in order to live a more fulfilling life. While writing and recording the album in her home studio in Athens, GA, Schneider thought a lot about her own growth and self-worth as an artist, and where her constantly evolving and always experimental music fits in the digital age.  Environmentalism, money, power, and modern feminism formed part of that conversation, too. Throughout Personalia Schneider seeks to address how the attention economy is plaguing us with feelings of FOMO and anxiety, and is causing many of us to abandon their progressive values.

At its core, Personalia is about rebuilding, not rebranding. It’s about evolving and moving forward despite knowing the world is falling apart around you. On the peppy, dance hit “Whisper 2000” Schneider fully embraces this idea: “If you cannot behold my miracle, step away from the vehicle,” she sings with a defiant spring in step.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sanctimitus Detrimitus
2. Whisper 2000
3. Personalia
4. After The Final Rose
5. Classical Toys
6. Even The Good Boys Are Bad
7. Community Porn
8. Hot Wife
9. Hello
10. Futureless Hives Of Bel Air

Occupying the corners between fuzzed-out shoegaze bliss, troubadour poetry, and metallic catharsis, DIIV –– Zachary Cole Smith [lead vocals, guitar], Andrew Bailey [guitar], Colin Caulfield [vocals, bass], and Ben Newman [drums] —— personally inhabit the recesses of their third fulllength album, Deceiver. A whirlwind brought DIIV here. On the heels of 2012’s Oshin, the group delivered the critical and fan favorite Is the Is Are in 2016. Praise came from The Guardian, Spin, Rolling Stone and more. Pitchfork’s audience voted Is the Is Are one of the Top 50 Albums of 2016, as the outlet dubbed it “gorgeous.” Simultaneously, frontman Zachary Cole Smith faced down seemingly dormant demons, and the momentum stalled.

Two years after embarking on a program of recovery, Smith has emerged with a clear head and renewed focus. For the first time, DIIV lived with songs on the road. During a 2018 tour with Deafheaven, they performed eight new compositions as the bulk of the set. The tunes progressed as the players did. By the time DIIV entered 64 Sound to record with producer Sonny Diperri, the band felt a certain confidence.

It’s evident on first single “Skin Game,” which gallops forth on a clean guitar riff before unfolding into a hypnotic hook offset by an off-kilter rhythm and hummable solo. “Being a recovering addict myself,” he says, “there are a lot of questions like, ‘Who are we? What is this disease?’ ‘Skin Game’ looks at where the pain comes from – the personal, physical, emotional, and broader political experiences feeding into the cycle of addiction for millions of us.”

A trudging groove and wailing guitar punctuate a lulling apology on the magnetically melancholic “Taker.” For Smith, it’s “about taking responsibility for your lies, their consequences, and the entire experience.” Meanwhile, the ominous bass line and crawling beat of “Blankenship” devolve into schizophrenic string bends with the vitriolic lyrics. The seven-minute “Acheron” offers a dynamic denouement, flowing through a hulking beat guided under gusts of lyrical fretwork and a distorted heavy apotheosis.

“We’re proud of this, because we earned it as a band,” Cole says. “I’m really happy and grateful just to do it in the first place. I can see the change. It’s not a record full of solutions, but I’m living my life. I’ve examined the consequences of my lies; I’ve got something to say now.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Deceiver' is by far the most cohesive and thematically consistent DIIV release yet in a succinct, yet superb catalogue. Swathes of distortion and echoing guitars are expertly laid down before Cole Smith's hypnotic vocals make their mark, coalescing into a lysergic, shoegazing maelstrom.

TRACK LISTING

1. Horsehead
2. Like Before You Were Born
3. Skin Game
4. Honey
5. Taker
6. For The Guilty
7. Lorelai
8. The Spark
9. Blankenship
10. Acheron

Brandon Williams’ second full-length record as Chastity, Home Made Satan , is a new direction for the Whitby, Ontario-native. It’s an emotional and political concept album from the perspective of a young man who’s spent too much time alone, inside, isolated from the world. It’s about fear, and radicalization; an intense meditation on youth and extremism in an increasingly irrational and violent Western World.

Williams, who produces all his own music, set out to create something with a strong cinematic nature. “It’s so visual to me,” he says. “I’m scoring this picture I have, and trying to get it as close to people’s ears as it is in my mind.”

The new songs are gothier and poppier than ever, recalling ‘80s staples like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Home Made Satan’s got “a bit more eyeshadow” than 2018’s genre-bending shoegaze-meets-post-hardcore Death Lust , and it’s got pop-punk hooks for days. Home Made Satan , with its lines about commies and American masochism and the Christian right, is meant to sing along to.

And when you do, you’ll mostly be singing about America. About hyper alienation and xenophobia, about the people who don’t have access to community, how people get stuck in their own worlds and become afraid of what’s outside.

“It constantly feels like America is falling apart,” Williams says, and that affects the whole world.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flames
2. Dead Relatives
3. Spirit Meet Up
4. Sun Poisoning
5. Anxiety
6. Last Year’s Lust
7. Bliss
8. The Girls I Know Don’t Think So
9. Still Feel The Same
10. Strif

Mainly recorded and produced at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios, with Ty Ueda later assisting on final tracking at his Mount Misery studio, Lina Tullgren’s Free Cell is masterfully confident. Some rock elements like nonlinear song structures and syncopated rhythms bleed over from the debut album Won era on tracks like “110717,” but the album offers a wider musical palette than its predecessor, with lush arrangements utilizing strings, brass and sculpted synths throughout.

“Golden Babyland” abounds in tension and claustrophobia, finding Tullgren alone and “in the kitchen melting Legos,” while the elegant and introspective ballad “Bad at Parties” scores a moment of quiet social paralysis. The strings (arranged by Simon Hanes) that carry through Free Cell echo back to Tullgren’s education as a classical violinist, and Lina moves deftly between these various soundscapes, resulting in their most dynamic music to date.

Throughout Free Cell , Tullgren looks back on their memories from the position of an analyst, often cool and cynical but always with an undercurrent of humor and deep feeling. In their poetry Lina Tullgren writes anthems for the alienated, for those alone on busses, at parties, at their parents’ house, for those who cannot help but feel lonely even if they are surrounded by others. Free Cell invites us to sit and listen, to reflect, but with no guarantee of any of those things being easy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Free Cell
2. 110717
3. Golden Babyland
4. Bad At Parties
5. Saiddone
6. Soft Glove 1
7. Glowing X 10000
8. Wow, Lucky
9. Soft Again
10. Nervous Yet
11. Soft Glove 2
12. Piano

La Onda de Juan Pablo was a travelogue of sorts, with its anthropological efforts, its parade of Latin American musicians and its choice to only feature Wauters native tongue. Introducing Juan Pablo, on the other hand, goes back and forth between Spanish and English. It is, in short, more faithful to the interculturalism that Wauters experiences daily. "In my house, among my family, we speak in Spanish. But outside in the neighborhood, we speak in English with my friends. Several of them speak in Spanish with their parents, but not all. It doesn't cause me any trouble to go from one language to another. I can express myself in the same way: everything is music." In a nod to both his home country and his adopted home, he includes an English version of "El Hombre de la Calle" ("The Man on the Street") by Jaime Roos, one of the most popular Uruguayan songwriters. The references to the land where he was born are her on the surface. Between the first track ("Super Talking") and the last ("Greetings"), songs run in both languages, culminating with "Lora", which opens like a pop kaleidoscope and ends in a kind of cosmic brotherhood between Eduardo Mateo and Syd Barrett.

His immigrant's side. His sense of belonging. His social life and his use of language. His need to work. And the even stronger need that his work doesn't become monotonous. His dream of another possible world: a world where all worlds fit. Juan Wauters went through all this to introduce us to Juan Pablo. They are the same person: one among the whole crowd.

TRACK LISTING

1. Super Talking
2. Doing Alright
3. Rubia
4. Letter
5. Bolero (Maurice Ravel)
6. Mystery
7. Lonely
8. Mountain
9. Jaime Tortuga
10. El Hombre De La Calle
11. Dos
12. What You Gonna Do
13. Letter (feat. Maxine)
14. Crazy Funny (feat. Maxine)
15. Lora
16. Straighten Up And Lose
17. Saludos

When Bambi and Cole Browning started writing the songs that would be become Reptaliens’ 2017 debut LP, FM-2030, they had no intention of starting a band. Focusing at first on creating music and art on a purely personal level, the project soon took off when the duo brought on Julian Kowalski (guitar) and Tyler Verigin (drums) to form a live band. The fourpiece swiftly delved into songwriting inspired by sci-fi art and literature, cult mentalities, and deep connections. The result is the band’s self-defined genre of “dreamwave,” which connected musical influences ranging from Gary Wilson-inspired jazzy lounge music, the warmth of Broadcast’s recording production, to Todd Rundgren’s outer space synth sounds.

After touring throughout most of 2017 and 2018 with STRFKR, Cults, and Of Montreal, the band returned home and went straight into renowned Portland studio Jackpot to record their sophomore LP, VALIS. Titled after the 1981 Philip K. Dick novel, Valis is a cohesive collection of songs unified in sound and structure and supported by recurring lyrical themes, consistent with Reptaliens’ sound: 80’s analog synthesizers, tape delay echos, and a dreamy blend of guitar lines which ebb and flow throughout Bambi’s melodies. Tracks like “Shuggie 2” and “Sunrise, Sunset” are phantasmagoric, breezy and minimal, resulting in an intimate and personal atmosphere in which the listener can ruminate. Yet, the dynamism of Valis comes from a balance between the band’s more introspective tracks with kinetic synth pop songs such as “Echo Park” and “Give Me Your Love” and and the upbeat guitar driven tracks “Venetian Blinds” and “Baby Come Home”.

With FM-2030, Reptaliens divulged tales from an etic: outsiders perspective of cult kidnappings, alien abductions, and sci-fi speculations towards potential future realities. In Valis, the lense is turned inwards and, through the looking glass, the 12 tracks provides an emic glimpse towards the feelings and situations of the subjective experience.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sunrise, Sunset
2. Venetian Blinds
3. Shuggie 1
4. Shuggie 2
5. Baby Come Home
6. Changing
7. Echo Park
8. Give Me Your Love
9. Song For Moon
10. Wake Up
11. Sweet, Innocent You
12. Heather

2018 marked a big year for both Chastity, who released his debut LP Death Lust to wide acclaim, and Mourn, who emerged victorious from a brief hiatus with their 3rd LP Sorpresa Familia. Following a summer tour together, MOURN and Chastity come together again to release a limited edition split 7”. Featuring live session cuts from each band and an alternate version of MOURN’s “Sun” (off 2018’s Sorpresa Familia ) recorded with Chastity, this limited edition release highlights two of the most exciting young acts coming out of Captured Tracks.

TRACK LISTING

01. Sun - MOURN Feat. Chastity
02. Skeleton (BTR Live Studio) - MOURN
03. You Are My Sunshine (Strombo Sessions) - Chastity

When recording their EP ‘MKDRONE,’ duo Jeannie Colleene and Gavin Neves – a/k/a HXXS – were cramped in a San Jose warehouse, sharing a wall with a porn studio. Despite their vocal takes periodically interrupted by even louder and harsher vocal takes echoing in the halls, MKDRONE came together. When prescription medication became the only reprieve for an inoperable tooth infection that had one member sliding between unbearable pain and prescription-induced euphoria, the first single “Seppuku,” the historical Japanese term for suicide by disembowelment, came to fruition. But similar to life with no health insurance and recording music wedged in the walls of a porn studio, HXXS live somewhere between the uncomfortable and the alluring.

Their live show, which consists of any hardware they can get their hands on – drum machines, synthesizers, samplers – is built on loops, making the songs feverish and at times deliberately frenzied to a point of anxiety. However the duo anesthetize this angst with more subdued nods to electronic and post-punk acts of the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s and Present. While their music is undeniably erotic – a tip of the hat to their vocal San Jose neighbours – the EP is what happens when your intrigue with pop culture media and conspiracy theories from the 60’s to present turns obsession. Contemplating the bombardment of modern media and those ill served by it. Women, the LGBTQ+ community, people of colour, victims of white supremacy and the patriarchy.

TRACK LISTING

1. Seppuku
2. Witch Hunt
3. Vices
4. Dripping Mercury
5. Trippin
6. Widowmaker

If I were to tell you that a band of NYC teenagers who met in 1979 decided to form a band influenced by Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Eno, Chrome and released a privately pressed record, it would be enough to pique your interest. When you find out the band consisted of a future Supreme Court Justice for Arizona, a Professor of Slavic Studies, a Musician/Documentarian whose family built the Brooklyn Bridge, and an A-list world-famous actor the story goes from being about another rare, privately pressed recording that’s been re-discovered, into something that’s pretty incredible.

Captured Tracks is thrilled to announce the reissue of Capital Punishment’s 1982 sole LP Roadkill. For a band of high school weirdos who actually got their shit together enough to make a completely uncommercial album with no means to sell it shows a lot of determination, persistence and perhaps insanity. But it’s always those kinds of weirdos who go on to do great things – just ask Judge Peter Swann, Professor Peter Zusi, Kriss Roebling and Ben Stiller

TRACK LISTING

01. Necronomicon
02. Roadkill
03. Confusion
04. Muzak Anonymous
05. All Just In Passing
06. Delta Time
07. Creatures Of The Dark (Night)
08. Cosmos
09. John’s Forgotten Land (Parts 1, 2, & 3)
10. Necronomicon (Reprise)
11. Waiting To See You
12. Helen 

Australia’s sweetheart, Gabriella Cohen struck gold with the release of her internationally acclaimed debut, Full Closure and No Details in 2016. After extensively touring the album worldwide and sharing the stage with musical heavyweights like The Flaming Lips, Marlon Williams and Rodrigo Amarante, fans and industry alike embraced the dreamy, fuzz-soaked popscapes created by Cohen. The Guardian praised: “Seductive, broody and occasionally sinister,” and it drew four-star reviews from MOJO, UNCUT and Q Magazine.

In the summer of 2017, Cohen moved to a farm in countryside Victoria, Australia, to record and self-produce her second album with engineer and partner-in-crime, Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon. There, amidst flocks of screeching white cockatoos and herds of Black Angus cows, they etched the beginning of Pink Is The Colour Of Unconditional Love. The record was almost complete when the band was invited to join Foxygen’s U.S tour, compelling the girls to finish the album on the road. Armed with a microphone and an interface, Dillon and Cohen captured the final touches on a boat in England, the coast of Portugal; in the mountains of Southern Italy, cafes of Mexico, and finally in Venice Beach, Los Angeles.

Pink Is The Colour is an expansive and exciting body of work, showcasing Cohen’s unusually refreshing twists on pop arrangements. ‘Baby’ was born in the graveyard of unrequited love, while ‘Music Machine’ became a swagger of sultry defiance set in LA. Throughout the new album Cohen creates complex and sugary backing vocals. These signature vocal arrangements—contoured with classic harmonies and nostalgic melodies—form songs remarkable in their originality. Honest heartache is woven into glory throughout the record, and during eleven tracks a candid, almost ethereal self-portrait of its songwriter emerges. For Gabriella Cohen, it’s an epitaph of electric wonder, and a definitive fact: Pink is the Colour of Unconditional Love.

“A modern psychedelic prophet who layers drawling vocals, heartache, and healing over a background of Velvet Underground-esque guitar distortion.” - Rookie Mag

TRACK LISTING

1. Music Machine
2. Baby
3. I Feel So Lonely
4. Miserable Baby
5. Mercy
6. Change
7. Neil Young Goes Crazy
8. Recognise My Fate
9. Morning Light
10. Hi Fidelity
11. Sky Rico

Guitarless Guitar Music. This is the self-imposed one-line description chosen by Auckland, New Zealand’s Wax Chattels. The keyboard, bass and drums trio don’t have a guitar player, but their overwhelming sound and energy create an atmosphere akin to a traditional power trio though their music is anything but traditional. They create darkly hypnotic and frenetic music that’s rhythmically complex and sinister; there’s heavily treated keyboards, unrestrained basslines and punishingly simple drums. And, it’s loud.

Peter (keyboards/vocals), Amanda (bass/vocals) and Tom (drums) met while studying Jazz Performance at the University of Auckland. After living abroad, completing Law School and/or performing in a myriad of other music-related projects, they started Wax Chattels, working up their material for a year prior to recording. “We tracked the songs as a live band to capture the energy of the live show, restricting ourselves to instruments which we play live and keeping all production to a minimum to focus on the band’s sound itself.”

Live, they are not to be missed. While they do come across as a “rock” band, it’s coming from so many places so quickly that you’re kind of left wondering where you’re going. The opening of the one-chord tour de force “Concrete” begins in a downright frightening and jarring place and ends up in a Krautrock-via-Suicide crescendo. It was after a particularly insane live performance that they were signed by both Captured Tracks and Flying Nun Records on the spot.

Wax Chattels recall the other side of Kiwi underground rock history that’s a bit less sunny and a bit less jangly. The small, yet constantly groundbreaking nation has put forth a new act and album that demands your attention.

TRACK LISTING

1. Concrete
2. Stay Disappointed
3. It
4. Gillian
5. In My Mouth
6. Shrinkage
7. Career
8. NRG
9. Parallel Lines
10. Facebook

For some time now, Brendon Avalos has been forging a path for himself among the clamor of emerging indie artists as the bassist and vocalist of Brooklyn punk trio B Boys. Now, he is releasing his first solo effort - a full length album entitled Losing Count - under the moniker Gift Wrap.

Losing Count is the culmination of a personal goal Avalos set two years ago: to see through the completion of a collection of music all his own. “Artistically, I think the sole purpose of this record was to just do everything. An exercise in realizing a full concept without seeing what the end result would be.” As it turns out, that end result is a 13-track experimental pop album that packs a large punch with influences ranging from early new wave acts like Depeche Mode and OMD to Frank Ocean.

With each track draped in whimsically looping layers and interspersed with the pervasion of old radio samples, buzzing, and hums to create a tate of constant white noise, Avalos successfully conveys a state of latent anxiety through danceable, weirdo pop. In this way, Losing Count becomes an exercise in synthesizing the collective experience of today’s political and cultural climates into a fully individualized expression.

TRACK LISTING

01. Present
02. Losing Count
03. Current Expulsion
04. Change My Mind
05. Either Way
06. Mirage
07. Past
08. Comatose
09. Half Of Nothing
10. The Situation
11. I Cry
12. A Moment Of Reflection
13. Future

It’s a debut that plays the part without succumbing to it, more pastel romantic comedy than sepia historic drama. There are stylistic nods to Springsteen and Dire Straits, Arthur Russell’s more folk-leaning output, the various collaborations of Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne. But Thomas seems intent on conveying his specific take on these things over emulating them; you get the impression that he’s just as inspired by karaoke renditions of “I’m On Fire” or “Romeo and Juliet” as he is by the originals. And the stories he tells are full of intimate moments and observations: a walk home from a lover’s apartment, a long night drive back upstate, a quiet Wednesday morning existential crisis; musings as to the significance of a Winona Ryder portrait on the wall of a stranger’s bedroom; the sense of discovery that comes with being young in a city with a new person, and the sense of loss when that novelty is gone. Another Age is indoor music at its most expansive, rock and roll held at arm’s length

TRACK LISTING

01. Another Age
02. I Remember
03. Cryin’
04. The Weather
05. Wednesday Morning
06. Winona Forever
07. My Fault
08. What Am I Gonna Do
09. Word Of Mouth

Debut album from Reptaliens featuring members of Blouse, Wampire, Brainstorm and Woolen Men.

Portland, Oregon’s Reptaliens is the husband and wife team of Cole and Bambi Browning. The couple met on a basketball court while filming a music video for a mutual friend’s band that didn’t exist. The two knew almost instantly they were soulmates; after dating for six months they married under a blanket of smoke from the season’s forest fires.

Named in reverence for their interests in cult mentality transhumanism, and conspiracy theories, Reptaliens quickly evolved from a bedroom recording project to a full-fledged band that explores fringe pop culture through analogue synthesizers, electric guitars, melodic basslines and Bambi’s lulling vocals. The pair’s songwriting mirrors their strong connection. As Cole says, “Bambi and I write all the music. Sometimes we work together to construct songs and sometimes I’ll come home from work and she’ll have a masterpiece finished and perfectly crafted. We both add to each other’s songs and none really seem completely Bambi’s or mine. We do everything together.”

Inspired by all things science fiction, writers like Philip K. Dick and Haruki Murakami and music ranging from Paul McCartney / Wings to African artists Francis Bebey and Nahawa Doumbia, the band creates psychedelic, chameleonic dreamscapes that fall sonically and visually somewhere between abstract expressionism and surrealism. These ideas and influences all coalesce on ‘FM-2030’ - named after the renowned transhumanist writer and philosopher - the band’s debut album on Captured Tracks.

Thematically based around obsession, Bambi says she “gravitates toward other people’s obsessions and draws inspiration from them. I like to think of method acting and personify myself as the obsessor, writing from their perspective. I love pretending and creating around these personalities.” This play-acting on record translates to the band’s sincere and theatrical live performances that involve homemade costumes and on-stage guest appearances from a giant reptile man.

‘FM-2030’ was recorded at famed Portland studio The Green House with Riley Geare. As longtime active participants in the Portland music scene, Bambi and Cole called on a number of talented musicians for Reptaliens’ recordings and live performances, including Julian Kowalski (guitar), Bryson Hansen (synth) and Tyler Vergian (drums). However, Cole is quick to note, “Reptaliens is a concept more so than a band or any group of individuals. Those who are willing to let go and open themselves up to new experiences will be rewarded and emboldened. Those who want to turn away will have no choice but to look. The truth is out there.”

TRACK LISTING

29 Palms
If You Want
Simulation
666Bus
These Days
Satan’s Song
Nunya
Butter Slime
Forced Entry
Dreaming
Ubik

Dinner is Danish producer and singer Anders Rhedin. Following the release of his EP collection and last year’s debut album, ‘Psychic Lovers’, the now LA-based artist presents New Work on Captured Tracks.

With ‘New Work’, Dinner had a wish to do things differently. “I just needed to get back to the approach I used when I was still self-releasing cassettes, back in Copenhagen. I spent way too much time on the previous record. I was sitting in front of a computer-screen alone for seven months working on it, obsessing over it. This time I wanted to work very fast in order to think less. I wanted to collaborate more. I hoped that other people’s presence would keep my perfectionism in check.”

Dinner enlisted Josh da Costa (Regal Degal, Ducktails) to produce the album with him. He and Josh worked in the night time at off hours at a studio in an industrial part of downtown LA. The album’s songs were recorded on the spot with no preparation time. In-between studio sessions, Dinner recorded and overdubbed material in his apartment on an early 80s 4-track recorder.

“We did very little editing, we just tried to record what was there. You’ll hear a lot of first-takes on the record. The best part of the process was driving home early in the morning though the empty streets of LA, listening to the night’s recordings. Because it was such an immediate experience.”

The two previous Dinner releases were recorded in Berlin and Copenhagen with mostly European musicians. This isn’t the case on ‘New Work’, which features performances by Andy White (Tonstartssbandht), Charlie Hilton (Blouse), Rori McCarthy (Infinite Bisous, Connan Moccasin), Staz Lindes (Paranoyds) and a duet with Sean Nicholas Savage. “A lot of my favorite music is American. I thought it would be fun to go a little bit less Euro on this one. I’m plenty Euro by myself, some might say. I wanted to add a different color.”

Asked to describe the sound of ‘New Work’ after the first listen, Captured Tracks owner Mike Sniper texted: “Julian Cope, 60’s Baroque Pop, early 70’s Canterbury Sound, Japan, Ryuichi Sakamato, ‘Raspberry Beret’-era Prince... Need to listen a few more times before anything concrete comes!”

TRACK LISTING

Un-American Woman
Don’t Belong
Walk Away
Siren Song
Marble Eyes
Illusions
Get Real
Copenhagen
Waitin’
Thwl

Captured Tracks have the album you've all been waiting for. Mac Demarco's 'This Old Dog' is finally upon us and for long-term fans or new listeners alike, it's a treat. Starting with the warming tribute, 'My Old Man' which begins rich with woody CR78 percussion and sumptuous acoustic guitar, soon to break into Demarco's unmistakeable vocal drawl. As the chorus grows from the tapestry of sound, the warmth of the reticent synth swells surrounds the stero image in a comforting blanket of organic haze. It's indicative of Demarco's earlier work, but more confidently approached, brilliantly minimal still but undeniably rich in it's simplicity. 

'Baby You're Out' grows from a more off-centred rhythmic approach but undergoes a shuffling transformation to swoon into the folky redux of the main choral refrain, it's an approach that could be jarring but in the capable sonwriting hands of the man himself, it predictably goes by without a hitch. Speaking of transformations, Mac seems to undergo a tranformation himself from shuffled syncopator into sleazy lounge singer in the oozingly laid-back 80's synth sizzle of 'For The First Time'. Decending digital pads and simmering DX7 tines coalesce into a melting-pot of reverb and polyester garments. 

There are pieces here like 'Sister' that really display the no-frills talent that has endeared us all to him for so long, comprising of hazy pitch-shifted guitar sitting right back in the mix while heartbreaking lyrics swim ever so briefly around the wistful plucking. 'Dreams From Yesterday' oozes with crackling tubes and hazy summer dreams to counteract the minimal aura of it's precident. And so it continues, from warm and full-bodied to cold and reticent, there isn't a bad moment here, only different emotions conveyed through a variety of techniques, and every one of them perfectly executed. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: "Mac DeMarco must be some kind of joke act, right?" Has this thought ever crossed your mind? I came across it in a festival review and I felt for the poor guy who just didn't seem to get what Vernor Winfield McBriare Smith IV (I'll give you a moment to let that settle in...) is all about. If you can relate but somehow feel intrigued, 'This Old Dog' is your perfect entryway into the wacky world of Mac DeMarco. It seems like everyone's favourite sleaze man is trying to show us that he has grown up, without having lost an inch of his quirkiness. It is okay to be vulnerable sometimes, the songs about his troubled relationship with his father seem to confess, just don't bury your head in the sand. 'This Old Dog' is stripped back, simpler and therefore easier to digest than his previous outings. It's dreamy and reflective but always light-hearted, and will leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your chest. Careful, though, you might feel like you're floating on a cloud.

TRACK LISTING

1. My Old Man
2. This Old Dog
3. Baby You’re Out
4. For The First Time
5. One Another
6. Still Beating
7. Sister
8. Dreams From Yesterday
9. A Wolf Who Wears Sheeps Clothes
10. One More Love Song
11. On The Level
12. Moonlight On The River
13. Watching Him Fade Away

Gabriella Cohen’s debut solo full-length is the product of ten days and two microphones. Co-produced alongside close friend, bandmate and engineer Kate ‘Babyshakes’ Dillon, the record is the result of what Cohen describes as the “ceremony” of reflecting on a relationship.

The album’s raw, personal side could be traced back to its place of birth at Dillon’s parents’ place in the country, or to the Brisbane streets the songs were composed in. The songs are soaked in the kind of aching nostalgia that is tinged with equal measures of sadness and triumph. On ‘I Don’t Feel So Alive’ Cohen warns: “This could be the last time we get together” and on one hand it’s melancholy but it’s in the spirit of endings that are also beginnings. After finishing the record, Cohen and Dillon hit the road down Australia’s East Coast, from Brisbane to Melbourne, a truck full of instruments and gear following in their wake.

There are two sides to Cohen’s coin though - for every moment of raw, cutting emotion, there’s one of otherworldly ethereality. It’s what makes the record feel timeless, which doesn’t mean old-fashioned - it means that the vocoder on ‘Feelin’ Fine’ and the fuzzy, frenzied drums of ‘Alien Anthem’ don’t feel at odds with the dreamy, ambling melodies and old-school ethos at the heart of Cohen’s songwriting.

‘Full Closure And No Details’ is a definitional labour of love: when Cohen talks about her collaborators she sounds like she’s talking about her family - her bass player and backing singers, ring-ins that recorded after Cohen and Dillon finished up in the country, are ‘dear friends’; and Dillon is her ‘sister’. The songs were written on Cohen’s grandpa’s nylon string guitar and ‘Piano Song’ was recorded on Dillon’s parents’ old, out-of-tune upright, the same piano she learned on as a child.

“‘Full Closure And No Details’ is quietly impressive - a slowburning fusion of defiance and heartache.” - The Guardian

TRACK LISTING

Beachs
I Don’t Feel So Alive
Sever The Walls
Yesterday
Piano Song
Feelin’ Fine
Downtown
Dream Song
This Could Be Love
Alien Anthem

Matteo Vallicelli is an Italian drummer and composer, best known as the live drummer of The Soft Moon and Death Index and as a founding member of many renowned Italian punk bands. This winter he debuts his first solo project, ‘Primo’, on Captured Tracks.

In 2013, Vallicelli relocated from the ancient neighbourhood of Trastevere in Rome to the ever-changing Kreuzberg district in Berlin. This dramatic uprooting acted as a catalyst, inspiring him to try and make music on his own. Heavily inspired by the pulsating techno scene of the German capital, Vallicelli began experimenting with synthesizers and drum machines. Recording sounds onto his computer and cassette tapes led him to create a massive collection of loops and samples, sometimes in protracted home sessions where he wouldn’t leave his apartment for days.

For Vallicelli, the transition from playing drums in punk bands to sitting alone in his home studio, working on minimalistic electronic compositions, has dramatically shifted his music career. “Being in charge of everything can be disorienting. Having no other band members to work or fight with… I would end up with hours of music that I would endlessly edit on my computer. It took me years to learn how to limit myself, to finish up a project and move on to something else. But, as soon as I mastered that, I was able to assemble my first album quickly.”

Songs like ‘Michelangelo’ and ‘Frammenti’ were born as techno tracks but, through subtraction, became something different and more representative of the introspective state in which they were created. These two tracks opened up a path for the rest of the music on the Primo, in which most of the songs have no traces of drums or percussive elements, marking a new, liberating way for Vallicelli to make music. The result of three years of experimentation, Primo is ultimately an exercise in self-limitation and discovery.

TRACK LISTING

Frammenti
Nuova Notte
Il Balletto Delle Stelle
Lacrime In Estate
Giungla Elettrica
Lausitzer Platz
Michelangelo
Arpeggio Due
Come Un Gatto
Futuro
Ore Di Tempesta

In May of 1979, UK native Martin Newell was 26 years old and in transition. He’d just split up with his girlfriend and moved out of the Colchester house they’d shared for four years. A month later, Newell also stepped down as the singer for Gypp, a band he’d been in for three years. Though they had a great live reputation and a strong regional following, Newell, with some misgivings, felt their music was out-of-step with the times. That same year he turned down the offer of a literature degree course at university as well. He had a part time washing-up job, a guitar and a room in a rambling, boho house. He could just tear the whole thing down and start again.

That summer friend and recording engineer Dave Hoser heard some of Newell’s demos and offered to help record them on his 4-track equipment, dubbed ‘The Octopus Mobile’. With some of Newell’s former optimism and energy restored, he put together a new band: the then 23- year-old drummer Michael ‘Stix’ Natkanski, former Gypp bass player Tony Phillips and Braintree guitarist Malcolm Burch (AKA Max Volume). Calling themselves The Stray Trolleys, the music here predates Newell’s work as The Cleaners From Venus and the bulk of the sessions on their sole album, ‘Barricades And Angels’, were recorded at Octopus Studios during spring and summer of 1980. Amazingly, although they had little to no rehearsals, all backing tracks were recorded fairly quickly and everyone got on well, especially in the pub afterwards.

CD and LP digital download card include bonus track ‘Mrs. Killer’.

TRACK LISTING

Secret Dreams Of A Kitchen Porter
A Bluebeak Kit
Governor’s Only Daughter New Age Dreamer
Stiletto Love
Gunslinger
Love Into Action
Ten Million Years
Flamingo Road
Finding Out
Barricades & Angels
No Static
Days Of Firebirds
Mrs. Killer *
* = CD & LP (Via LP Digital Download Card) Only

When EZTV lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Ezra Tenenbaum sings, “Facedown on the concrete, While I dream of wider streets” on ‘States Of Confusion’ you can hear weariness in his voice and a touch of wistful ‘what if’ longing for more room, a little less hassle, a few more trees... maybe even a garage to park the 8-track machine.

The shining ‘High Flying Faith’ - the first song written for the album - is a refutation of urban weariness, its title perhaps acting as a makeshift motto for the optimism (and stubbornness) that is key to New York bands like EZTV. Inspired by the lyrics of ‘Broken Heart’ by Skip Spence, it’s a 12-string-propelled nugget that best shows how EZTV operate: toeing the line between past and present, with a keen ear for left-of-the-dial experimentation that never lets the songs hew too far into pastiche and genre nostalgia.

Many of the band’s foundational inspirations - the Feelies’ upstart jangle, the upside-down pop architecture of Arthur Russell’s power pop band The Necessaries, Shoes’ aching harmonies - are back in play on ‘High In Place’, their sophomore album, though new instruments and feels abound throughout. Produced and engineered by the band themselves, a baby grand piano rings and 12-string acoustic guitars shimmer throughout the album, recalling the cleareyed production techniques of Jeff Lynne.

Taking advantage of tour stopovers, trips to attend weddings, or even just commandeering someone’s vacation for a few days, EZTV invited some likeminds and fellow songwriters into the studio - Jenny Lewis, Chris Cohen, Martin Courtney and Matt Kallman of Real Estate, John Andrews of Quilt, Nic Hessler and Mega Bog - to guest on ‘High In Place’.

Aptly recorded on a tape machine purchased from a Lower East Side Studio that was going out of business, in a space where the New York City skyline both loomed and inspired through its glass windows, ‘High In Place’ is an album of golden pop songs worthy of any era.

“Low on drama but high on seemingly effortless jangle pop brilliance, [debut] ‘Calling Out’ feels like a long-lost classic and an exciting discovery.” - All Music

TRACK LISTING

High Flying Faith
Racing Country
Reason To Run
Clear
States Of Confusion
Hammock
Temporary Gold
Still
How Long’s It Gonna Be
Goodbye Morning

Dinner is Danish producer and singer Anders Rhedin. Dinner leads a nomadic existence, dividing his time between Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Berlin. So far Dinner has released three EPs and a guided hypnosis tape. Now he presents his debut album ‘Psychic Lovers’.

Whether the finished album lives up to Dinner’s vision only Dinner knows. Musically, the album exists in its own space between the 1980s, 1990s and the present. The songs are pop songs held together by somewhat idiosyncratic arrangements.

Opener ‘Cool As Ice’ sounds like the soundtrack to David Lynch directing ‘Miami Vice’ with overdriven synthetic strings and an equally eerie and funky slap bass that slowly grow into a pop structure.

‘Turn Me On’ invokes the feeling of Sade recorded on VHS fronted by Klaus Nomi’s baryton-possessed ghost, or a warped jingle from The Home Shopping Network.

The song ‘Lie’ has distinct Nico-esque undertones and John Cale-ish overtones wrapped in 1980s melancholy, while ‘Wake Up’ and ‘The World’ explore inverted 90s Euro-pop.

In the words of mix-engineer Filip Nicolic (Poolside), “The whole album sounds like Chimo Bayo produced by Marquis de Sade.” An even more concise definition of Dinner comes from labelmate Mac Demarco: “Great face, great body, great tunes.”

TRACK LISTING

Cool As Ice
The World
Turn Me On
Gone
What You Got
Wake Up
Holy Fuck!
A.F.Y.
Lie
Kali, Take Me Home

Charlie Hilton, known up until now for her work in the band Blouse, has now forged a new identity with her debut solo album, ‘Palana’.

It should come as no surprise that many of the songs on ‘Palana’ are concerned with shifting characters, forms and ideas. The album’s title itself is a nod to Hilton’s given Sanskrit name, an identity she shed completely after high school in favour of the androgynous ‘Charlie’ and Palana’s overarching theme can be summed up by a quote from Hermen Hesse’s Steppenwolf, a phrase Hilton cites as a personal mantra: “Man is not by any means of fixed and enduring form… he is much more an experiment and a transition”

Enlisting Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jacob Portrait as producer, Hilton freely experimented with diverse sounds and moods - some minimal and some cacophonous - out of the confines of a band structure. ‘Funny Anyway’ is truly stark, featuring only string accompaniments, with Hilton assuming a role akin to a confessional French chanteuse, while ‘Let’s Go To A Party’ is Hilton’s cheeky take on an icy dance track with thick, bouncing synths and a chorus that echoes “I’m only happy when I’m dancing.” Alternatively, tracks like ‘Pony’ harken back to the psychedelic strengths of Blouse, saluting bands like Broadcast and United States Of America and then there’s ‘100 Million’, the sole track produced by Woods’ Jarvis Taveniere that rounds out the album in a soft, acoustic and light-hearted way with labelmate Mac DeMarco lending his talents on percussion and back-up vocals.

This wide range of moods on ‘Palana’ recall several of Hilton’s key influences - the solemn beauty of Nico, the whimsical nature of Marc Bolan and the naïveté of Jonathan Richman - but the album is undeniably the work of one artist, perhaps best summed up by the artist herself: “The music on this record is diverse, but so is the inside of a person. I feel like I’m many people.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: A very good record that's hard to pin down, as it mixes lots of styles from krautrock grooves, dream-pop floatiness, psych and library sounds, blending the electronic with the organic in such a clever way. Stereolab fans will love this.

TRACK LISTING

Palana
Something For Us All
Pony
Long Goodbye
Funny Anyway
WHY
Let’s Go To A Party
Snow
The Young
No One Will
100 Million

Like the days of Steely Dan, Harry Nilsson or Prince releasing a classic every year (or less) comes Mac DeMarco's Another One, a mini-LP announced almost one year to the date of the meteorically successful Salad Days. Conceived and recorded entirely by himself in a short period between a relentless tour schedule at his new place in Far Rockaway, Queens, Another One is eight, freshly written songs, expanding the arsenal of Mac's already impressive catalog. There’s a bittersweet, romantic sensibility present. The overall feeling is lost love, or perhaps love never found, yet Mac embraces this without making it an overly somber experience for the listener. It’s at times haunting and warm, and a bit more refined and sophisticated, but still plenty playful, retaining the guts and soul of classic Mac.

TRACK LISTING

1 The Way You'd Love Her
2 Another One
3 No Other Heart
4 Just To Put Me Down
5 A Heart Like Hers
6 I've Been Waiting For Her
7 Without Me
8 My House By The Water

Gayna Florence Perry and Robin Surtees are perhaps best known for their work with cult Eighties band Shiny Two Shiny. Signed to Red Flame Records, they released one mini LP entitled ‘Halfway Across The Rainbow’ and one single ‘Waiting For us’ c/w ‘Ritual Hate’, in 7” and 12” formats. A mixture of bright and breezy synth pop with some darker undercurrents both records made a dent in the indie charts gaining positive reviews in the music press for releases and live appearances and acclaim from John Peel as well as daytime airplay on Radio 1. They also toured Europe and appeared on TV. At the start of 1984 the band played at the ‘Big Brother’ music festival at the ICA in London, supporting Pink Industry. But by this time the writing was on the wall for Shiny Two Shiny.

TRACK LISTING

1. Waiting For Us
2. Razzamatazz
3. Concentration
4. Through The Glass
5. Grey
6. Moment To Moment
7. Rain
8. Ritual Hate
9. Susquehanna
10. Waiting For Us (12” Single Mix)
11 . Seven Four ( Live In Brussels)
12. Boy From Ipanema
13. Waiting For Us 7”
14. Wake

The legendary lo-fi band Cleaners from Venus formed in the small town of Wivenhoe, southeast England at the turn of 1980s by Martin Newell. The man, the myth, but to rock singer and part-time kitchen porter with a love of sunny 1960s pop music, punk rock and musical comedy. He never cared much for any kind of musical rule book and broke new ground with music that garnered a cult following and a highly-influential sound that continues to inspire. These 4 albums are the final chapter in the unveiling of the entire discography from the band, spanning the end of Martin Newell's long, storied run as the Cleaners from Venus (1985-1992). Included are Living with Victoria Grey, Number Thirteen and My Back Wages, which Newell considers a new release as it is finally being released as he originally intended it. The fourth album is a collection of rarities and unreleased material from the time that My Back Wages was recorded, called Extra Wages.

TRACK LISTING

Living With Victoria Grey:
01. Victoria Grey (1)
02 . Ilya Kuryakin Looked At Me
03. Clara Bow
04. Follow The Plough
05. Stay On
06. What’s Going On (In Your Heart)
07. The Mercury Girl
08. Armistice Day
09. Pearl
10. Victoria Grey (2)

Number Thirteen:
01. The Jangling Man
02. No Go (for Louis Macneice)
03. Mariette
04. Man For Our Time
05. Here She Crashes
06. A St Reet Called Prospect
07. Minesweeping Memory Lane
08. Germayne (Like A Cathedral )
09. Boy From The Home Counties
10. The Tear Collector
11. Christmas In Suburbia

My Back Wages:
01. Stay Lit
02. Gulf War Song
03. Smash Yore Watch
04. You Should Have Called
05. Arcadian Boys
06. Crane Driver
07 She Rings The Changes
08 Before The Hurricane
09. Clara Bow
10. When My Ship Comes In
11. Incident In A Greatcoat

Extra Wages:
1. It Could Have Been Cheryl
2. The Iceberg And Unicorn
3. The World Strikes One
4. The Princes Of Suburbia
5. Rusty Iron Sun
6. Gatecrashing Oyster Park
7. Finding My Own Way Home
8. Red Guitars And Silver Tam
9. Everytime I Go Up
10. The Green Gold Girl Of The
11. We'll Build A House

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

Milk n Cookies are the stuff of legends – or would be legends.

Forming in the early 70s on Long Island, NY this power pop group was originally signed to Island Records and seemed destined for greatness. Yet through many cases of wrong place wrong time the band never managed to break. The core line up of the band was made up of Ian North, Justin Stauss, Sal Maida and Mike Ruiz and in their time they played classic NYC venues like CBGB’s & Max’s Kansas City and shared bills with everyone from Talking Heads to The Ramones.

The band have amassed a cult following influencing the likes of Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Debbie Harry (Blondie).

Consider this 7” a small taste of what’s to come from Captured Track’s deluxe 3xLP reissue.

Limited to 100 copies for the UK and Ireland.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

After the August release of their new LP ‘To The Happy Few’, shoegaze pioneers Medicine continue to embellish their return from an 18 year hiatus with this radio session at Part Time Punks.

Following their first show in nearly two decades, Medicine add to an already rich creative and sonic legacy which has seen singer Beth Thompson, guitarist/vocalist Brad Laner, and drummer Jim Goodall continually challenge the barriers of melody and noise in their LPs ‘Shot Forth Self Living’ (1992), ‘The Buried Life’ (1993) and ‘Her Highness’ (1995).

This beautiful, very limited tri-color wax LP is only available for RSD.

Limited to 200 copies for the UK and Ireland.

'Salad Days', is the follow up to 2012's lauded 'Mac DeMarco 2' which saw the Edmonton local propelled into the limelight. Written and recorded around a relentless tour schedule (which picked up all over again as soon as the LP was done), 'Salad Days' gives the listener a very personal insight into what it's all about to be Mac amidst the craziness of a rising career in a very public format.

The lead single, "Passing Out Pieces," set to huge overdriven organ chords, contains lines like "..never been reluctant to share, passing out pieces of me.." Clearly, this isn't the same record that breezily gave us "Dreamin," and "Ode to Viceroy" but the result of what comes from their success. "Chamber of Reflection," a track featuring icy synth stabs and soulful crooning, wouldn't be out of place on a fantasy Shuggie Otis and Prince collaboration. Standout tracks like these show Mac's widening sound, whether insights into future directions or even just welcome one-off forays into new territory.

Still, this is musically, lyrically and melodically good old Mac DeMarco, through and through. The same crisp John Lennon/Phil Spector era homegrown lush production that could have walked out of Geoff Emerick's mixing board in 1972, but with that peculiar Mac touch that's completely of right now.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Having set the tone with his second album ‘2’ back in 2012 with an ode to cheap cigarettes and song after song of whimsical ambivalence, Mac Demarco offers up some fresh delights for us to sink our teeth into. This time there’s a few darker moments from the haunting synthpop masterpiece “Chamber Of Reflection” to a frosty “Passing Out Pieces” revealing the toll touring the world has taken on him. When Demarco isn’t passing out pieces he takes the time to dish out some of his best gap-toothed advice yet with “Let Her Go” and “Treat Her Better” topping it all off with his usual brand of crooning vocals, languid guitars and those ridiculously funky basslines, a definite step up from the last album. Mac takes things a little (only a tiny bit) more seriously this time and pulls off his best record yet!

TRACK LISTING

1. Salad Days
2. Blue Boy
3. Brother
4. Let Her Go
5. Goodbye Weekend
6. Let My Baby Stay
7. Passing Out Pieces
8. Treat Her Better
9. Chamber Of Reflection
10. Go Easy
11. Jonny's Odyssey

Perfect Pussy are one of the boldest and most intriguing projects to surface in recent years, garnering widespread critical acclaim following the release of a four song EP, titled I have lost all desire for feeling. Veiled beneath layers of exquisitely abrasive noise, frontwoman Meredith Graves’ lyrics are disarming, brutally honest and poetic, possessing a feverish intensity that can only be matched by Graves’ electric stage presence. Hailing from Syracuse, New York, the band is comprised of members from the local punk and hardcore community.

Since releasing their 4 song demo cassette I Have Lost All Desire for Feeling in late 2013, Perfect Pussy have taken the music world by storm. Their harsh yet refreshing lyrics paired with the assaulting vocals of singer Meredith Graves drew in audiences from all crowds. While often muffled by the wall of sound built buy the guitar, bass, drums and synth, it is the brutal truths of Graves’ lyrics and the power of her live delivery that has had everyone from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork to The New York Times praising the power of this rising band. With Say Yes to Love Perfect Pussy have begun to hone their sound while retaining the rough around the edges noise that first drew listeners in. The first track, “Driver”, grabs the listner and drags them into the chaotic world of this brief but powerful album. The songs kick and punch but it is the dense, honest lyrics that will make the listener feel the most. Filled with conflict and confidence and despare and desire, these are songs that stay with the listener long after the album has ended.

“These punk kids from the mean streets of Syracuse, New York, deliver high-energy slabs of mayhem-friendly post punk noise, a wall of guitar and Casio. Meredith Graves knows how to run her mosh pit like a dictator runs a birthday party.” Rolling Stone.

“In just four short songs, Perfect Pussy has spoken more truths than many artists with 20-year-spanning discographies, and with news of a debut full-length in the works, now is probably a good time to start bracing yourselves. It might get a little uncomfortable, but trust me, the shake-up is worth it.” Complex.

“One of the boldest new rock bands.” Pitchfork.

TRACK LISTING

1. Driver (2:16)
2. Bells (1:41)
3. Big Stars (2:19)
4. Work (2:08)
5. Interference Fits (3:30)
6. Dig (1:23)
7. Advance Upon The Real (5:04)
8. VII (4:36)

Soft Metals is an electronic duo formed in 2009 by Ian Hicks and Patricia Hall currently based in Los Angeles, California. They met in late 2008 at a DJ night hosted by Patricia in Portland. Work began on their self produced, self recorded 2nd LP "Lenses" in the summer of 2012. They sketched out what would become the song "Lenses" and work then continued into the fall and winter. When they went into recording album 2 they wanted to focus more on a sound with beats and rhythms you can move your body to, melodies you can connect with emotionally, and vocals that coax your mind into a dreamy introspective luminal space.

The idea behind "Lenses" is about breaking out of thought patterns and previously held ways of seeing yourself and the surrounding world. Lenses; a continuation of their ethos aiming directly at your body and subconscious mind with an intimacy that only lovers can bring. The song “Lenses” describes the experience of shifted consciousness with the lyrics “breaking through my perception of you, breaking through my concept of life”. It celebrates the feeling of escape from a mind imprisoned with lack of presence and stuck in habit all set to an earnest beat and lush enigmatic melodies that entwine and seduce.

“Tell Me”, “No Turning Back”, When I Look Into Your Eyes” expresses that nervous, vulnerable feeling of falling for someone, but questioning the reality of the situation asking “Is this love true? Or are we just lost in lust?”, “when you said you loved me, I laid my whole life down”, “When I look into your eyes, I wonder if we’ll meld”. “In the Air”, perhaps the most movement inspiring track of the album, is a dense, pulsating piece about the power of nature, the effects of seasonal changes on all living things that rule over sexuality, productivity, and inspiration- the basis of man’s various forms of mysticism.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lenses
2. Tell Me
3. When I Look Into Your Eyes
4. No Turning Back
5. Hourglass
6. On A Cloud
7. In The Air
8. Interobserver

A strong love for classic 60s/70s guitar pop (Beach Boys, Beatles) as well as soft spots for Prince and Hall & Oates display his self proclaimed 'fascination with pop music'. While his influences certainly shape his work, it is his natural ear for melody and movement which make Calder's work both fluid and engaging.

His knack and ambition both in his song writing and production provide a solid foundation for Calder's music to drift in an out of psychy realms. There are no over drenched chorus or walls of sound, instead leaving space for melody and texture to beneatly co-existent. Alex has found the sweet spot between slacker-pop jangle and snug rhymtic production to create reassurance his songs are going somewhere. Intimate handclaps and shakers make it easy for one to visualize the living from which it came as Calder's questions what to do with his time both literally and existentially.

TRACK LISTING

1. Sukie And Me
2. Light Leave Your Eyes
3. Location
4. Time
5. Captivate
6. Fatal Delay
7. Lethargic

Now, all of six months later, Mac is back with his first proper full length, Mac DeMarco 2. As opposed to RNRNC, “2” is a concerted effort to produce a cohesive work that showcases Mac’s natural ability as a songwriter, singer and producer. With a new arsenal of recording gear, the fidelity has substantially improved without compromising the immediacy and organic quality of his prior releases under any monicker. The results are immediately rewarding, from the warm “Cooking Up Something Good” to the heartfelt “My Kind of Woman.” It’s obvious Mac is presenting himself musically in the most sincere way possible, no matter what happens in his wild videos or live shows. “Freaking out the Neighborhood,” Mac’s apologetic ode to his loved ones about such public behavior, shows that Mac DeMarco is still with us, coming along for the ride, getting everyone else in trouble. Even so, the maturation process of Mac DeMarco, recording artist, is in full swing. He did, after all, turn 22 this April.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: His first full album, full of quirky garage gems, slightly odd but in a good way... I think it's awesome anyway.

TRACK LISTING

1. Cooking Up Something Good
2. Dreamin'
3. Freaking Out The Neighborhood
4. Annie
5. Ode To Viceroy
6. Robson Girl
7. The Stars Keep On Calling My Name
8. My Kind Of Woman
9. Boe Zaah
10. Sherrill
11. Still Together

Texas native John Pena began writing and performing under the Heavenly Beat guise in the latter part of 2009. John emerged from his bedroom after months of leisurely paced recording with a couple of tracks that would become his first release on Captured Tracks in the form of the 7 inch single “Suday”. Being influenced by nothing in particular has payed off as many have had trouble pinning the sound down as anything other than “immaculately arranged and paced” and “attractive music for attractive people”. Thus again proving that just because you’ve heard a song by The Cure or Neil Young doesn’t mean you have to ape it shamelessly to gain wide acceptance. Shortly after the release of “Suday” Heavenly Beat released the A side “Faithless” for their forthcoming 2nd single, igniting not only the blog world but the interest of the uninformed few who might have missed “Suday”. By paying homage to no one but himself, John Pena’s band has become one to watch in 2012.

“Heavenly Beat is the solo project of Beach Fossil’s John Pena, described in a super-adept pun by Oh My Rockness as ‘piña colada pop.’ Pena sings about being hurt inside and out, but the party drums and guitars suggest only good times. The perfect song is a little of both.” The Fader.

STAFF COMMENTS

Ryan says: Noticably different from his work in Beach Fossils, Jon Pena shows us what he's made of. Songs like Faithless just trigger super-8 movies in my head of people running into waves and it just looks like the most fun ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lust
2. Messiah
3. Faithless
4. Tolerance
5. Elite
6. Talent
7. Hurting
8. Tradition
9. Presence
10. Influence
11. Consensual

Debut EP from the Canadian eccentric Mac Demarco. This record of weirdo blues rock is amazing. Think Scott Walker meets Ariel Pink. Mac DeMarco, formerly Makeout Videotape, is the anti-thesis to your stereotypical singer-songwriter. Disregarding the seriously somber moments, he replaces them with whimsical and youthful spontaneity, whilst retaining the endearing and subtle commentaries that exude his familiarity. Promptly after leaving his Edmonton garage for Vancouver he embarked on a North American tour accompanying fellow Canadians Japandroids on a grand voyage of enlightenment and alcoholic debauchery.

DeMarco's a weird cat cultivating an affinity for occult imagery, nudity and social satire. But his most impressive trait is his undeniable and instinctual ability to compose magical pop jangles, of which he'll likely refer to as "jizz jazz". His dusted jams have garnished him accolades that are as ever-increasing as his song writing abilities; his sound rendering comparisons, but in a nomadic fashion alluding no distinct origin. Come March DeMarco's debut solo EP entitled Rock And Roll Night Club will ramble into the great unknown guided by Captured Tracks, DeMarco's inner Elvis a tow.

TRACK LISTING

1. Rock And Roll Night Club
2. 96.7 The Pipe
3. Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans
4. One More Tear To Cry
5. European Vegas
6. 106.2 Breeze FM
7. She's Really All I Need
8. Moving Like Mike
9. Me And Jon, Hanging On
10. I'm A Man
11. Only You
12. Me & Mine

As the first contribution to the Captured Tracks' Shoegaze Archives series, Should offers 'A Folding Sieve'. This classic take on the genre lends waves of euphoric dream pop sounds similar to My Bloody Valentine. This album was originally released in 1995 under the name shiFT by the Austin based record label ND.

The LP version includes the original release's tracks as well as "Faded" and "Own Two Feet", all songs on vinyl for the first time. CD has 6 tracks of unreleased material also. (Vinyl comes with DL code that has all tracks).

Coming up on a year since their debut self titled LP release (one of the best albums of 2010, hands down!), The Soft Moon presents 'Total Decay', Luis Vasquez continues to conjure a sound fueled tempest that intoxicates with its own post-apocalyptic dust in this new EP!

After two stirring 7" releases and the aforementioned debut album, it was apparent that Vasquez was digging his own niche, an intimate well-spoken whisper, carrying a heavy load of synths that creep and drums that command an uncontrollable pull from within. This intimate peak into another world, Vasquez' mind, has garnered a number of comparisons to some of the most iconic and influential bands of the post punk and krautrock movements.

Live, the band takes on Justin Anastasi and Damon Way to help transform the listening experience cogently with an array of sound and light effects that translate the energy of the recordings. 'Total Decay' solidifies that the Soft Moon is on its own path, not to be compared. Just listen, hold the shadow of his hand on this journey into the darkness, as he whispers directions through the obstacles, to the light...

TRACK LISTING

1. Repetition
2. Alive
3. Total Decay
4. Visions

Patricia Hall and her boyfriend Ian Hicks have been enchanting one another with song since the spring of 2009. Their first meeting was an audition. Ian was looking for a voice to compliment his moody, cinematic synthesizer sketches and Patricia hoped to meet the right partner to help put her day dreamy poems and keyboard melodies to music. Their mutual love of early 80s synth pop, the nascent incarnations of house and techno, ebm, krautrock, post punk, and the first wave of industrial music set the course. After a few sessions together the partnership proved to be exactly what they had both been searching for and Soft Metals was born.

What began as a collaboration between songwriters soon budded into a passionate love affair. Song lyrics became secret messages, with which Patricia confessed her developing affection for Ian. The Portland-based duo's first five original works together, which became the EP "The Cold World Melts", released on Captured Tracks, is a time capsule of this courtship. This summer marks the release of their first full length, a self-titled release with Captured Tracks.

The album is a further expression of their romance, but now - 2 years into their relationship - the two are looking a bit more outward. They explore fantastical soundscapes which conjure the dramatic cinematic worlds of Dario Argento, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, and the Czech New Wave. Ultra-saturated colors with a touch of noir, opulent architecture, and mysterious femmes all spring to mind. From the deep examinations of the human psyche found in Adam Curtis documentaries (the subject matter of their track "Psychic Driving"), to the controversial bridge between science and the soul via Carl Sagan and Ray Kurzweil, the duo revels in the trans-formative power of love, knowledge, and imagination. The outcome of all this is a collection of bittersweet electronic pop songs balanced by a delicate surrealism, a patient sense of experimentation that leaves you floating in your subconscious and moving to the beat.

The sonic landscapes are sleek, but never icy. Even at her most dreamlike, Patricia's vocals reach an eerie beauty that is always deeply emotional. This emotional force is mirrored in her lyrics. For example, the gloriously cinematic "Voices" features our heroine conquering her inner narrative of fear and weakness and finding the vitality to achieve her dreams. In "Pain," Hall sings the word with an almost brazen confidence. "It's that pain," she coos, in a song about the sometimes oceanic distance that develops between two souls, as though her familiarity with pain is so deep that she can begin to play with it. Finally, the vintage synthesizers and drum machines evoke a Space Age dreamer's vision of the future as evidenced most clearly in the gorgeously atmospheric "Celestial Call". Soft Metals have a strange nostalgia for a place not yet visited - a place where we live among the stars.

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Superb synthwave pop that incorporates elements of Italo disco, house and early industrial music. On the always reliable Captured Tracks label.

TRACK LISTING

1. Psychic Driving
2. Always
3. Voices
4. Celestial Call
5. The Cold World Melts
6. Hold My Breath
7. Eyes Closed
8. Pain
9. Do You Remember
10. In Throes

Hoop Dreams have managed to make an unlikely thing occur: A second C/T signing from Blacksburg, VA. Mining similar influences as their contemporaries, the young sextet bring an emotive and exciting sense of urgency to the table that only anticipates what should be a great debut LP.

"There are relatively few labels left whose logo can be considered a true stamp of approval, but for many people Captured Tracks is one of those. Hoop Dreams fit perfectly into their roster; a band from Virginia that sound like they could be from Manchester, they make clattering, slightly neurotic pop songs in the vein of a deconstructed Cure." - The Line of Best Fit (Song of the Day).

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Yet another gem from Captured Tracks! Clattering, jangling, melodic pop, with nods to everything from Postcard Records to Joy Division.

Long-running European/American trio release their first record with Captured Tracks, the whoozy and beautiful "Your Love Runs Still" 4 song EP. A longtime favorite of all of us at the label, we're thrilled to start working with the band that was a constant on our Best of 2010 Year-End List.

Brooklyn, NY's Further Reductions have been building up a reputation for a while and we finally have some vinyl to show it off. Working with electronic instrumentation but not limited to electronic influences alone, Reductions are carving out their own niche of sad, beautiful pop music.

'Thru the gates of forever and into the frozen vapours of Mannattan's minimal electronic monolith in the night, Further Reductions, Shawn O'Sullivan (of Led Er Est knowings) and collaborator Katie Rose are weaving a web of reverberatory wonderment. One of not just a few of the minimal synth couple outfit armies to emerge from New York's ever living and breathing clan of the same epithet, this masculine/feminine dream drone dichotomy's synthesized incantations drift like gleaming analogue jewels of dark incandescent dance dew. Voices with the echoes of youth sung wistfully into in the well and steeped in the myst of minor discord float inside Familiar Flights'. - La Maladie Tropicale.